Purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having self scanning function and POS system

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning function and a POS system which prevent an unjust act such as to carry out a commodity without reading a commodity code whether it is intentional or accidental. The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus comprises a commodity code reading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, an accommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read, a weighing equipment for measuring the total weight of commodities accommodated in the accommodation section, a weight determination section for detecting the increase/decrease of the total weight of the commodities in the accommodation section, and an alarm generation section responsive to a result of the detection for generating an alarm when the total weight of the commodities has changed without reading a commodity code.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1) Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus such as a shopping cart (hand cart) or a shoppingbasket for use in the distribution industry, particularly in a storesuch a mass sales store, a convenience store or a supermarket to allow acustomer to accommodate and transport a purchased commodity, and moreparticularly to a purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus having a self scanning function to allow a customer topurchase a commodity while the customer reads a commodity code such as abar code attached to the commodity and also to a POS (Point Of Sales)system to which such purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus having a self scanning function is applied.

2) Description of the Related Art

Generally, a POS system is employed in various stores such assupermarkets and convenience stores. In the POS system, a customer walksaround in a store pushing a shopping cart or carrying a shopping basket,places commodities to be purchased into the shopping cart or theshopping basket, and comes to a settlement POS terminal (POS register).

Then at the settlement POS terminal, an operator takes out thecommodities one by one from the shopping cart or the shopping basket andreads the bar codes (commodity codes) applied to the commodities bymeans of a scanner to effect registration processing. In particular, inaccordance with commodity code information read from each bar code, theprice of the commodity corresponding to the commodity code is retrievedfrom a commodity price file (PLU (Price Look Up) file), and a totalamount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated to settle theaccounts.

With such POS system, however, since an operator must perform a readingoperation of a commodity code of each commodity, much time is requiredfor such reading operation and a settling operation, which causes thecustomer to wait for a long time. Accordingly, in a time band in whichcustomers are crowded, a queue of customers is produced in front of asettlement POS terminal, and additionally, produces a heavy burden onthe operator.

Thus, in recent years, a shopping cart (scanning cart) or a shoppingbasket having a scanner (commodity code reading section) for reading abar code (commodity code) applied to a commodity has been developed andare disclosed in various publications including, for example, JapanesePatent Laid-Open Applications No. Showa 63-145591, No. Heisei 2-277412and No. Heisei 5-81559.

In a POS system which employs a shopping cart or a shopping basket ofthe type mentioned, a customer reads a bar code applied to a commodityto be purchased by means of the scanner to register the commodity codeinformation and places or accommodates the commodity into anaccommodating section of the shopping cart or the shopping basket.Thereafter after selection of commodities to be purchased is completed,the commodities are placed into the shopping cart or the shopping basketand transported to a settlement POS terminal.

Then at the settlement POS terminal, the commodity code information (orcommodity price information corresponding to the commodity codeinformation) registered by the customer is down loaded, and a totalamount of money of the purchased commodities is calculated based on thecommodity code information (commodity price information) to effectsettlement of the accounts.

With the POS system, an operator no longer needs to read the commoditycodes of commodities one by one, and the time (register operation time)required for reading, processing and settling processing can be reducedsignificantly. Consequently, the customer no longer needs to for a longtime any more and also the burden on the operator can be reducedremarkably.

In the POS system wherein an operator performs a reading operation for acommodity code to register the commodity, commodity registration of allof commodities accommodated in a shopping cart or a shopping basket isperformed upon settlement of accounts. Accordingly, unless anintentional unjust act (shoplifting or the like) is performed, suchunjust act that a commodity without settlement of accounts can beprevented.

Additionally, conventional purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatuses having a self scanning function described aboveor POS systems which employ such an apparatus do not include establishedmeans for detecting whether or not all commodities accommodated in ashopping cart or a shopping basket have been registered for commodityregistration (the commodity codes haven been read), and thecountermeasure against the case wherein a customer has placed acommodity into a shopping cart or a shopping basket without reading thecommodity code by means of the scanner is not sufficient in the presentsituation.

For example, even if a customer fails to read a commodity code by meansof the scanner, the commodity can be accommodated as it is, and anoperator may possibly settle the accounts without being aware of suchcommodity. Accordingly, an unjust act such as shoplifting can beperformed readily regardless of whether it is intentional or accidental.

In order to prevent such unjust acts, means have been proposed forcausing, when a commodity code is read by means of a scanner, the colorof the commodity code to be changed or for jetting colored ink to anarea of the commodity code to clearly indicate that reading of thecommodity code has been completed.

With the means, however, the color change condition or the applicationcondition of ink must be checked, upon settlement of accounts, for thecommodity codes of all commodities, and the burden on an operator cannotbe reduced. Further, when one tries to return a commodity for whichreading of the commodity code has been performed having intruded topurchase the commodity, the commodity code cannot be returnedimmediately to its condition before such reading, and a shopman mustperform re-attachment of a commodity code (bar code) or a likeoperation. Further, the means which employs jetting of colored ink isnot preferable in terms of sanitation where the commodity is food or thelike.

Furthermore, in a conventional purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus having a self scanning function described aboveor a POS system which employs the apparatus, since a final settlingoperation of accounts by an operator must be performed with a settlementPOS terminal, a customer must wait for some interval of time at thesettlement POS terminal, which imposes a burden on the operator.Therefore, it is desired to allow operations up to final settlement ofaccounts to be performed with each purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus, while preventing an unjust act, to achieve areduction of the burden on an operator, a reduction of the number ofoperators and smoothing the flow of customers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a selfscanning function and a POS system which prevent an unjust act such ascarrying out a commodity without reading a commodity code (commodityregistration) whether it is intentional or accidental.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a selfscanning function and a POS system which allows operations up to finalsettlement of accounts to be performed by self service to achieve areduction of the burden to an operator and a reduction of the number ofoperators and to provide agreeable shopping for a customer without anywaiting time.

In order to attain the objects described above, according to an aspectof the present invention, there is provided a purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanningfunction, which comprises a commodity code reading section for reading acommodity code applied to a commodity, an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bythe commodity code reading section, a weighing equipment for measuringthe total weight of commodities accommodated in the accommodationsection, a weight determination section for detecting the variation ofthe total weight of the commodities in the accommodation sectionmeasured by the weighing equipment, and an alarm generation section forgenerating an alarm when it is determined by the weight determinationsection that the total weight of the commodities in the accommodationsection measured by the weighing equipment has changed without reading acommodity code by the commodity code reading section.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise an alarm cancellation section for cancelling the alarmgenerated from the alarm generation section when it is determined by theweight determination section that the total weight of the commodities inthe accommodation section, which changed without reading a commoditycode by the commodity code reading section, has returned to its originalweight before the change.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, when it is determined by the weightdetermination section that the total weight of commodities in theaccommodation section has changed without scanning a commodity code, analarm is immediately generated there to give a warning to the customer.Consequently, such an unjust act as to carry out a commodity withoutreading a commodity code whether it is intentional or accidental can beprevented with certainty without giving a disagreeable feeling to thecustomer.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda POS system which comprises a plurality of purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning functionand each including a commodity code reading section for reading acommodity code applied to a commodity, and an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bythe commodity code reading section, and a management section formanaging the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus, each of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus including a weighing equipment for measuring thetotal weight of commodities accommodated in the accommodation section, aweight determination section for detecting the variation of the totalweight of the commodities in the accommodation section measured by theweighing equipment, an alarm generation section for generating an alarmwhen it is determined by the weight determination section that the totalweight of the commodities in the accommodation section measured by theweighing equipment has changed without reading a commodity code by thecommodity code reading section, a timer for counting an alarm generationtime by the alarm generation section, a timer determination section fordetermining whether or not the counted time by the timer reaches apredetermined time, and an error transmission section for transmitting,when it is determined by the timer determination section that thecounted time by the timer has reached the predetermined time, uniqueinformation of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus as error information to the management section.

The management section may include an error reception section forreceiving the error information from the error transmission section ofany of the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus,an error display section for displaying, when the error information isreceived by the error reception section, the unique information of oneof the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus fromwhich the error information has been transmitted, and an errorcancellation section for cancelling the display of the uniqueinformation of the one purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus on the error display section when acountermeasure for the one purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus, from which the error information has beentransmitted, is completed.

With the POS system, if a customer ignores such an alarm as describedabove and does not take out the commodity for which scanning has notbeen performed, then the unique information of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus with which the unjust act hasbeen performed is transmitted as error information to and displayed onthe management section. Consequently, some countermeasure can be takenimmediately for the customer who has conducted the unjust act.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, which comprises a commodity codereading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, anaccommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whosecommodity code has been read by the commodity code reading section, aweighing equipment for measuring the total weight of commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section, a commodity weight retrievalsection for retrieving the weight of a commodity in accordance with thecommodity code information read by the commodity code reading section, aweight comparison section for comparing the weight of the commodityretrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section and the increment ofthe total weight of the commodities in the accommodation section afterreading of the commodity code information measured by the weighingequipment, and an alarm generation section for generating an alarm whenit is determined by the weight comparison section that the weight of thecommodity retrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section and theincrement of the total weight of the commodities in the accommodationsection after reading of the commodity code measured by the weighingequipment are different from each other.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a weight determination section for detecting thevariation of the total weight of the commodities in the accommodationsection measured by the weighing equipment, and wherein the alarmgeneration section generates an alarm when it is determined by theweight determination section that the total weight of the commodities inthe accommodation section measured by the weighing equipment has changedwithout reading a commodity code by the commodity code reading section.

According to a still further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a POS system which comprises a plurality of purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning functionand each including a commodity code reading section for reading acommodity code applied to a commodity, a commodity code registrationsection for registering the commodity code information read by thecommodity code reading section, and an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bythe commodity code reading section, a commodity information file forstoring price information of commodities corresponding to the commoditycode information as commodity information, and a settlement POS terminalfor retrieving the commodity information file in accordance with thecommodity code information registered in the commodity code registrationsection of any of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus to perform final settlement of accounts for purchasedcommodities accommodated in the accommodation section of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus, the commodityinformation file storing weight information of individual commoditiescorresponding to the commodity code information as commodityinformation, each of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus including a weighing equipment for measuring thetotal weight of commodities accommodated in the accommodation section,and a data transmission section for transmitting, upon settlement ofaccounts at the settlement POS terminal, the total weight of thecommodities in the accommodation section measured by the weighingequipment to the settlement POS terminal, the settlement POS terminalincluding a data reception section for receiving data from the datatransmission section of any of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus, a commodity weight retrieval section forretrieving the weights of the commodities corresponding to the commoditycode information from the commodity information file in accordance withthe commodity code information of all commodities registered by thecommodity code registration section, a total weight calculation sectionfor calculating the total weight of the weights of the commoditiesretrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section, a weight comparisonsection for comparing the total weight calculated by the total weightcalculation section and the total weight of the commodities in theaccommodation section received by the data reception section, and analarm generation section for generating an alarm when it is determinedby the weight comparison section that the total weight calculated by thetotal weight calculation section and the total weight of the commoditiesin the accommodation section received by the data reception section aredifferent from each other.

Each of the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatusmay include a weight determination section for detecting the variationof the total weight of the commodities in the accommodation sectionmeasured by the weighing equipment, and an alarm generation section forgenerating an alarm when it is determined by the weight determinationsection that the total weight of the commodities in the accommodationsection measured by the weighing equipment has changed without reading acommodity code by the commodity code reading section.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function and the POS system, when it isdetermined that an actual increment in weight and the weightcorresponding to commodity code information are different from eachother, or when it is determined that the total weight calculated inaccordance with the commodity code information and the total weight ofthe commodities actually measured by the weighing equipment aredifferent from each other, an error is notified. Consequently, such anintentional unjust act as to register a single commodity and accommodatea plurality of commodities at a time into the accommodation or toaccommodate a commodity into the accommodation section withoutregistering the same and such an accidental unjust act as a miss ofscanning or an error in scanning can be detected. Accordingly, thoseunjust acts can be prevented with certainty. Further, the safetyequivalent to that of a conventional POS system, in which settlement ofaccounts is performed by a scanning operation of an operator, can beprovided to the store side which adopts the present POS system, andbetter services can be provided to the store side and customers.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, which comprises a commodity codereading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, acommodity code registration section for registering the commodity codeinformation read by the commodity code reading section, an accommodationsection for accommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code hasbeen read by the commodity code reading section, the commodity codereading section being used to read, upon settlement of accounts, thecommodity code of a commodity selected at random from the commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section, a commodity registrationdetermination section for determining whether or not the commodity codeinformation read by the commodity code reading section upon settlementof accounts is registered in the commodity code registration section,and an error notification section for notifying an error when it isdetermined by the commodity registration determination section uponsettlement of accounts that the commodity code information read by thecommodity code reading section is not registered.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, which comprises a commodity codereading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, acommodity code registration section for registering the commodity codeinformation read by the commodity code reading section, an accommodationsection for accommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code hasbeen read by the commodity code reading section, the commodity codereading section being used to read, upon settlement of accounts, thecommodity code of a commodity selected at random from the commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section, and a commodity registrationdetermination section for determining whether or not the commodity codeinformation read by the commodity code reading section upon settlementof accounts is registered in the commodity code registration section,the commodity code registration section automatically registering thecommodity code information read by the commodity code reading sectionwhen it is determined upon settlement of accounts by the commodityregistration determination section that the commodity code informationis not registered.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise an error notification section for notifying an errorwhen it is determined upon settlement of accounts by the commodityregistration determination section that the commodity code informationread by the commodity code reading section is not registered.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, if a commodity which has beenaccommodated into the accommodation section without scanning thecommodity code by a customer whether it is intentional or accidental isdetected upon settlement of accounts by random scanning checking by anoperator, then the unjust act can be notified as an error and and thecommodity can be automatically registered. Consequently, such an unjustact as shoplifting by a customer can be prevented by a restrainingeffect on a temptation to an unjust act without imposing a burden on theoperator of the settlement POS terminal and without taking such acountermeasure as to change the color of the commodity code, andoccurrence of unjust acts upon introduction of a POS system whichinvolves self scanning can be prevented with certainty.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a POS system which comprises a plurality of purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus having a self scanning functionand each including a commodity code reading section for reading acommodity code applied to a commodity, a commodity code registrationsection for registering the commodity code information read by thecommodity code reading section, and an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bythe commodity code reading section, and a settlement POS terminal forperforming final settlement of accounts for purchased commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section of any of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus in accordance withthe commodity code information registered in the commodity coderegistration section of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus, the settlement POS terminal including aresonance tag detection section for detecting a resonance tag applied inadvance to each commodity to detect the number of the commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section of any of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus, and a commoditynumber comparison section for comparing the number of the commoditiesdetected by the resonance tag detection section and the number ofregistered commodities obtained in accordance with the commodity codeinformation registered by the commodity code registration section.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, since the registered number ofcommodities and the number of actual commodities detected by theresonance tag detection section of the settlement POS terminal arecompared with each other and a result of the comparison is notified,presence or absence of a non-registered commodity can be confirmedreadily at the settlement POS terminal and notified to the customer.Consequently, occurrence of unjust acts upon introduction of a POSsystem which involves self scanning can be prevented with certainty.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, which comprises a commodity codereading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, anaccommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whosecommodity code has been read by the commodity code reading section, aprepaid card inputting processing section for receiving a prepaid cardand reading remains information of the prepaid card, a commodity priceretrieval section for retrieving the price of the commodity inaccordance with the commodity code information read by the commoditycode reading section, and a data updating section for registering aresult obtained by subtraction of the price of the commodity retrievedby the commodity price retrieval section from the remains informationread by the prepaid card inputting processing section as remainsinformation of the prepaid card to update the remains information.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a notification section for notifying, when the remainsread by the prepaid card inputting processing section runs short of theprice of the commodity retrieved by the commodity price retrievalsection, such shortage, and or a selection section for selecting, whenthe remains read by the prepaid card inputting processing section runsshort of the price of the commodity retrieved by the commodity priceretrieval section, whether the purchasing processing is to be continuedinserting a second prepaid card into the prepaid card inputtingprocessing section or the purchasing processing is to be ended.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a receipt issuance section for issuing a receipt uponcompletion of the purchasing, and/or a receipt issuance selectionsection for selecting whether the issuance of a receipt by the receiptissuance section is necessary or unnecessary.

According to a yet further aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, which comprises a commodity codereading section for reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, anaccommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whosecommodity code has been read by the commodity code reading section, amagnetic card reading section for receiving a credit card or a bank cardand reading magnetic information of the card, a commodity priceretrieval section for retrieving the price of the commodity inaccordance with the commodity code information read by the commoditycode reading section, and an automatic clearing processing section forautomatically clearing the amount of money corresponding to the price ofthe commodity retrieved by the commodity price retrieval section from anaccount corresponding to the magnetic information of the card read bythe magnetic card reading section at some other time.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a prepaid card inputting processing section forreceiving a prepaid card and reading the remains information of theprepaid card, and a data updating section for registering a resultobtained by subtraction of the price of the commodity retrieved by thecommodity price retrieval section from the remains information read bythe prepaid card inputting processing section as remains information ofthe prepaid card to update the remains information.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a data reception section for receiving data from amanagement section, and a power on/off drive section for automaticallyturning the power source on/off in response to a power on/offinstruction received from the management section by way of the datareception section, and/or may further comprise a weighing equipment formeasuring the total weight of commodities accommodated in theaccommodation section, a weight determination section for detecting thevariation of the total weight of the commodities in the accommodationsection measured by the weighing equipment, and an alarm generationsection for generating an alarm when it is determined by the weightdetermination section that the total weight of the commodities in theaccommodation section measured by the weighing equipment has changedwithout reading a commodity code by the commodity code reading section.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, since final settlement of accounts canbe performed by self service using a prepaid card, a bank card or acredit cart, not only reduction of the burden on an operator andreduction of the number of operators can be achieved, but agreeableshopping free from a waiting time at a settlement POS terminal can beachieved and remarkable reduction of the shopping time and remarkableenhancement in convenience in a self shopping form can be realized.

Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the following detailed description when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts orelements are denoted by like reference characters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 to 6 are block diagrams illustrating different aspects of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus and a POSsystem according to a first preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of a controlsystem of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of amanagement section of the POS system shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a cart section of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing an accommodating section of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown inFIG. 7;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing an exemplary alarm display of adisplay section of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 13 is a view showing an exemplary display of an error displaysection and an error cancellation section of the management sectionshown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the POS system shownin FIG. 7;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus accordingto a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of a controlsystem of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus shown in FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown in FIG. 15;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of a POSsystem according to a third preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of a controlsystem of a purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatusin the POS system shown in FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of asettlement POS terminal employed in the POS system shown in FIG. 18;

FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the POS system shownin FIG. 18;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus accordingto a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown in FIG. 22;

FIG. 24 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of a POSsystem according to a fifth preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of asettlement POS terminal employed in the POS system shown in FIG. 24;

FIG. 26 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of acontroller or upper control section of the POS system shown in FIG. 24;

FIG. 27 is a view showing an exemplary display of a display section of apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus of the POSsystem shown in FIG. 24;

FIG. 28 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the POS system shownin FIG. 24;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus accordingto a sixth preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing a hardware construction of a controlsystem of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus shown in FIG. 29;

FIG. 31 is a perspective view showing an accommodation section of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown inFIG. 29;

FIG. 32 is a flow chart illustrating operation of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus shown in FIG. 29; and

FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing a functional construction of amodification to the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus shown in FIG. 29.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

a. Aspects of the Invention

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an aspect of the presentinvention. The aspect illustrated is directed to a POS system whichincludes a plurality of purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 (only one is shown in FIG. 1) having a selfscanning function, and a management section 8 for managing the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1. Each of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 includesa commodity code reading section 2 for reading a commodity code 50aapplied to a commodity 50 and an accommodation section 3 foraccommodating therein a commodity 50 whose commodity code 50a has beenread by the commodity code reading section 2. The purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus further includes a weighingequipment 4, a weight determination section 5, an alarm generationsection 6, an alarm cancellation section 7, a timer 9, a timerdetermination section 10, and an error transmission section 11.

The weighing equipment 4 measures the total weight of commodities 50accommodated in the accommodation section 3, and the weightdetermination section 5 detects the variation of the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 measured by the weighingequipment 4.

The alarm generation section 6 generates an alarm when it is determinedby the weight determination section 5 that the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 measured by the weighingequipment 4 has changed without reading a commodity code 50a by thecommodity code reading section 2. The alarm cancellation section 7cancels the alarm generated from the alarm generation section 6 when itis determined by the weight determination section 5 that the totalweight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3, whichchanged without reading a commodity code 50a by the commodity codereading section 2, has returned to its original weight before thechange.

The timer 9 counts an alarm generation time by the alarm generationsection 6, and the timer determination section 10 determines whether ornot the counted time by the timer 9 reaches a predetermined time. Theerror transmission section 11 transmits, when it is determined by thetimer determination section 10 that the counted time by the timer 9 hasreached the predetermined time, unique information of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 as errorinformation to the management section 8.

Meanwhile, the management section 8 includes an error reception section12, an error display section 13, and an error cancellation section 14.

The error reception section 12 receives error information from the errortransmission section 11 of any of the purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus 1. The error display section 13 displays,when such error information is received by the error reception section12, the unique information of one of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1 from which the errorinformation has been transmitted, and the error cancellation section 14cancels the display of the unique information of the one purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 on the errordisplay section 13 when a countermeasure for the one purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1, from which the errorinformation has been transmitted, is completed.

In the POS system and the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 described above with reference to FIG. 1,whilthe purchase uses the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 in order to purchase commodities, the totalweight of commodities 50 accommodated in the accommodation section 3 ofthe purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 ismeasured by the weighing equipment 4, and the variation of the totalweight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 from theweighing equipment 4 is detected by the weight determination section 5.

Then, if it is determined by the weight determination section 5 that thetotal weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3measured by the weighing equipment 4 has changed without reading acommodity code 50a by the commodity code reading section 2, it isdetermined that the customer has accommodated or taken out a commodity50 into or from the accommodation section 3 without performing reading(scanning) of the commodity code 50a, and an alarm is generated from thealarm generation section 6.

If it is determined by the weight determination section 5 aftergeneration of the alarm that the total weight has returned to itsoriginal weight before the change, then it is determined that thecommodity 50 which was accommodated into the accommodation section 3 bythe customer without reading the commodity code 50a has been taken outfrom within the accommodation section 3, and the alarm generated by thealarm generation section 6 is immediately canceled by the alarmcancellation section 7.

On the other hand, when the alarm generated by the alarm generationsection 6 is not canceled by the alarm cancellation section 7, the alarmgeneration time by the alarm generation section 6 is counted by thetimer 9, and it is determined by the timer determination section 10whether or not the counted time by the timer 9 reaches the predeterminedtime.

If it is determined by the timer determination section 10 that thecounted time by the timer 9 reaches the predetermined time, then uniqueinformation of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1 is transmitted as error information to the managementsection 8 by the error transmission section 11.

Then, on the management section 8 side to which the error information istransmitted, when the error information from the error transmissionsection 11 of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1 is received by the error reception section 12, the uniqueinformation of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1 from which the error information has been transmitted isdisplayed on the error display section 13.

The display of the unique information of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1 on the error display section13 continues until after some countermeasure is taken for the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 from which theerror information has been transmitted, and after the countermeasure istaken, the display is canceled by the error cancellation section 14.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function and the POS system described above withreference to FIG. 1, the following advantages can be achieved.

1. When it is determined by the weight determination section 5 that thetotal weight of commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 haschanged without scanning a commodity code 50a, an alarm is immediatelygenerated there to give a warning to the customer. Consequently, such anunjust act as to carry out a commodity without reading a commodity codewhether it is intentional or accidental can be prevented with certaintywithout giving a disagreeable feeling to the customer.

2. If the customer ignores such an alarm as described above and does nottake out the commodity 50 for which scanning has not been performed,then the unique information of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 with which the unjust act has been performed istransmitted as error information to and displayed on the managementsection 8. Consequently, some countermeasure can be taken immediatelyfor the customer who has conducted the unjust act.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated another aspect of thepresent invention. The aspect illustrated is directed to a purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 having a selfscanning function. The purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 comprises a commodity code reading section 2,an accommodating section 3, a weighing equipment 4 and an alarmgeneration section 6 similar to those shown in FIG. 1. The purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 further comprises acommodity weight retrieval section 15 and a weight comparison section16.

The commodity weight retrieval section 15 retrieves the weight of acommodity 50 in accordance with the commodity code information read bythe commodity code reading section 2, and the weight comparison section16 compares the weight of the commodity 50 retrieved by the commodityweight retrieval section 15 and the increment of the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 after reading of thecommodity code information measured by the weighing equipment 4.

The alarm generation section 6 generates an alarm when it is determinedby the weight comparison section 16 that the weight of the commodity 50retrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section 15 and the incrementof the total weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3after reading of the commodity code measured by the weighing equipment 4are different from each other.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 mayfurther comprise a weight determination section 5 similar to that shownin FIG. 1 such that the alarm generation section 6 generates an alarmwhen it is determined by the weight determination section 5 that thetotal weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3measured by the weighing equipment 4 has changed without reading acommodity code 50a by the commodity code reading section 2.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function described above with reference to FIG.2, the weight of a commodity 50 is retrieved by the commodity weightretrieval section 15 in accordance with the commodity code informationread by the commodity code reading section 2, and the weight of thecommodity 50 retrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section 15 andan increment in total weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodationsection 3 after reading of the commodity codes measured by the weighingequipment 4 are compared with each other by the weight comparisonsection 16.

If it is determined by the weight comparison section 16 that the weightof the commodity 50 retrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section15 and the actual increment in total weight of the commodities 50 in theaccommodation section 3 measured by the weighing equipment 4 aredifferent from each other, then it is determined that the customer hasaccommodated the commodity 50 into the accommodation section 3 withoutscanning the commodity code 50a or the customer has placed into theaccommodation section 3 a different commodity from an actually scannedcommodity or some other unjust act has taken place. Consequently, analarm is generated from the alarm generation section 6.

In this instance, similarly as in the purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1, when it is determined bythe weight determination section 5 that the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 from the weighingequipment 4 has changed without scanning a commodity code 50a by thecommodity code reading section 2, an alarm can be generated immediatelyby the alarm generation section.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a further aspect of thepresent invention. The aspect illustrated is directed to a POS systemwhich includes a plurality of purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 (only one is shown in FIG. 3) having a selfscanning function, a commodity information file 18, and a settlement POSterminal 19. Each of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 includes, in addition to a commodity codereading section 2, an accommodation section 3, and a weighing equipment4 similar to those shown in FIG. 1, a commodity code registrationsection 17, and a data communication section 20. The commodity coderegistration section 17 registers commodity code information read by thecommodity code reading section 2. The data transmission section 20transmits, upon settlement of accounts at the settlement POS terminal19, the total weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section3 measured by the weighing equipment 4 to the settlement POS terminal19.

The commodity information file 18 stores price information ofcommodities 50 corresponding to commodity code information as commodityinformation. In the present invention, the commodity information file 18also stores weight information of individual commodities 50corresponding to the commodity code information as commodityinformation.

The settlement POS terminal 19 retrieves the commodity information file18 in accordance with the commodity code information registered in thecommodity code registration section 17 of any of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1 to perform final settlementof accounts for purchased commodities accommodated in the accommodationsection 3 of the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1. The settlement POS terminal 19 includes a data receptionsection 21, a commodity weight retrieval section 22, a total weightcalculation section 23, a weight comparison section 24, and an alarmgeneration section 25.

The data reception section 21 receives data from the data transmissionsection 20 of any of the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1, and the commodity weight retrieval section 22retrieves the weights of the commodities 50 corresponding to thecommodity code information from the commodity information file 18 inaccordance with the commodity code information of all commoditiesregistered by the commodity code registration section 17. The totalweight calculation section 23 calculates the total weight of the weightsof the commodities 50 retrieved by the commodity weight retrievalsection 22.

The weight comparison section 24 compares the total weight calculated bythe total weight calculation section 23 and the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 received by the datareception section 21, and the alarm generation section 25 generates analarm when it is determined by the weight comparison section 24 that thetotal weight calculated by the total weight calculation section 23 andthe total weight of the commodities 50 in the accommodation section 3received by the data reception section 21 are different from each other.

Each of the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus1 may include a weight determination section 5 and an alarm generationsection 6 similar to those shown in FIG. 1 such that the alarmgeneration section 6 generates an alarm when it is determined by theweight determination section 5 that the total weight of the commodities50 in the accommodation section 3 measured by the weighing equipment 4has changed without reading a commodity code 50a by the commodity codereading section 2.

In the POS system described above with reference to FIG. 3, thecommodity information file 18 for storing weight information togetherwith price information as commodity information of commodities 50corresponding to commodity code information is provided, and uponsettlement of accounts at the settlement POS terminal 19, the totalweight of purchased commodities in the accommodation section 3 of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 measuredby the weighing equipment 4 is transmitted from the data transmissionsection 20 to the settlement POS terminal 19.

On the other hand, at the settlement POS terminal 19, the weights of thecommodities 50 are retrieved from the commodity information file 18 inaccordance with all commodity code information registered in thecommodity code registration section 17 by the commodity weight retrievalsection 22, and then the total weight of the weights of the commodities50 retrieved by the commodity weight retrieval section 22 is calculatedby the total weight calculation section 23.

Then, the total weight calculated by the total weight calculationsection 23 and the total weight of the commodities 50 in theaccommodation section 3 received at the data reception section 21 arecompared with each other by the weight comparison section 24. If it isdetermined that the calculated total weight and the measured totalweight from the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1 are different from each other, it is determined that thecustomer has accommodated a commodity 50 into the accommodation section3 without scanning the commodity code 50a or the customer has placed adifferent commodity from an actually scanned commodity into theaccommodation section 3 or a plurality of commodities have been placedinto the accommodation section 3 for a single reading operation or someother unjust act has taken place. Consequently, an alarm is generatedfrom the alarm generation section 25.

In this instance, similarly as in the purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1, when it is determined bythe weight determination section 5 that the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the accommodation section 3 from the weighingequipment 4 has changed without scanning a commodity code 50a by thecommodity code reading section 2, an alarm can be generated immediatelyby the alarm generation section 6.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function and the POS system described above withreference to FIG. 3, when it is determined that an actual increment inweight and the weight corresponding to commodity code information aredifferent from each other, or when it is determined that the totalweight calculated in accordance with the commodity code information andthe total weight of the commodities actually measured by the weighingequipment 4 are different from each other, an error is notified.Consequently, such an intentional unjust act as to register a singlecommodity and accommodate a plurality of commodities at a time into theaccommodation section 3 or to accommodate a commodity 50 into theaccommodation section 3 without registering the same and such anaccidental unjust act as a miss of scanning or an error in scanning canbe detected. Accordingly, those unjust acts can be prevented withcertainty. Further, the safety equivalent to that of a conventional POSsystem, in which settlement of accounts is performed by a scanningoperation of an operator, can be provided to the store side which adoptsthe present POS system, and better services can be provided to the storeside and customers.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a still further aspect ofthe present invention. The aspect illustrated is directed to a purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 having a selfscanning function. The purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 comprises, in addition to a commodity codereading section 2, an accommodating section 3, and a commodity coderegistration section 17 similar to those described hereinabove, acommodity registration determination section 26, and an errornotification section 27.

The commodity code reading section 2 is used to read, upon settlement ofaccounts, the commodity code 50a of a commodity 50 selected at randomfrom the commodities accommodated in the accommodation section 3.

The commodity registration determination section 26 determines whetheror not the commodity code information read by the commodity code readingsection 2 upon settlement of accounts is registered in the commoditycode registration section 17, and the error notification section 27notifies an error when it is determined by the commodity registrationdetermination section 26 upon settlement of accounts that the commoditycode information read by the commodity code reading section 2 is notregistered.

The commodity code registration section 17 automatically registers thecommodity code information read by the commodity code reading section 2when it is determined upon settlement of accounts by the commodityregistration determination section 26 that the commodity codeinformation is not registered.

In the purchased accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 having aself scanning function described above with reference to FIG. 4, uponsettlement of accounts at a settlement POS terminal or the like, thecommodity code 50a of a commodity 50 selected at random from withincommodities accommodated in the accommodation section 3 is read usingthe commodity code reading section 2 by an operator.

Then, it is determined by the commodity registration determinationsection 26 whether or not the commodity code information read by thecommodity code reading section 2 upon settlement of accounts isregistered in the commodity code registration section 17. When it isdetermined that the commodity code information is not registered, it isdetermined that the commodity 50 was placed into the accommodationsection 3 without scanning the commodity code 50a thereof, and an erroris notified by the error notification section 27. Simultaneously, thecommodity code information is automatically registered into thecommodity code registration section 17.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatushaving a self scanning function, if a commodity 50 which has beenaccommodated into the accommodation section 3 without scanning thecommodity code 50a by a customer whether it is intentional or accidentalis detected upon settlement of accounts by random scanning checking byan operator, then the unjust act can be notified as an error and thecommodity 50 can be automatically registered. Consequently, such anunjust act as shoplifting by a customer can be prevented by arestraining effect on a temptation to an unjust act without imposing aburden on the operator of the settlement POS terminal 19 and withouttaking such a countermeasure as to change the color of the commoditycode 50a, and occurrence of unjust acts upon introduction of a POSsystem which involves self scanning can be prevented with certainty.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a yet further aspect ofthe present invention. The aspect illustrated is directed to a POSsystem which includes a plurality of purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus 1 (only one is shown in FIG. 5) having a selfscanning function, and a settlement POS terminal 19. Each of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 includes,in addition to a commodity code reading section 2, an accommodationsection 3, and a commodity code registration section 17 similar to thosedescribed above.

The settlement POS terminal 19 performs final settlement of accounts forpurchased commodities accommodated in the accommodation section 3 of anyof the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 inaccordance with the commodity code information registered in thecommodity code registration section 17 of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1.

The settlement POS terminal 19 includes a resonance tag detectionsection 29, and a commodity number comparison section 30.

The resonance tag detection section 29 detects a resonance tag 28applied in advance to each commodity 50 to detect the number of thecommodities 50 accommodated in the accommodation section 3 of any of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1, and thecommodity number comparison section 30 compares the number of thecommodities 50 detected by the resonance tag detection section 29 andthe number of registered commodities obtained in accordance with thecommodity code information registered by the commodity code registrationsection 17.

In the POS system described above with reference to FIG. 5, a resonancetag 28 is applied in advance to each commodity 50, and upon settlementof accounts at the settlement POS terminal 19, the resonance tags 28 ofcommodities 50 can be detected by the resonance tag detection section 29of the settlement POS terminal 19 to detect the number of commoditiesaccommodated in the accommodation section 3 of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1.

Then, the number of the actual commodities 50 detected by the resonancetag detection section 29 and the number of registered commoditiesobtained in accordance with commodity code information registered in thecommodity code registration section 17 are compared with each other bythe commodity number comparison section 30 of the settlement POSterminal 19. When the result of the comparison reveals that the numbersare different from each other, it is determined that the customer hasaccommodated a commodity 50 into the accommodation section 3 withoutscanning the commodity code 50a of it or the customer has placed adifferent commodity from an actually scanned commodity into theaccommodation section 3 or else a plurality of commodities have beenaccommodated for a single reading operation or some other unjust act hasbeen conducted, and this is notified by some means.

Accordingly, with the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus having a self scanning function, since the registered numberof commodities and the number of actual commodities detected by theresonance tag detection section 28 of the settlement POS terminal 19 arecompared with each other and a result of the comparison is notified,presence or absence of a non-registered commodity can be confirmedreadily at the settlement POS terminal 19 and notified to the customer.Consequently, occurrence of unjust acts upon introduction of a POSsystem which involves self scanning can be prevented with certainty.

Referring finally to FIG. 6, there is illustrated a yet further aspectof the present invention. The aspect illustrated is directed to apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 having aself scanning function. The purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 comprises, in addition to a commodity codereading section 2 and an accommodating section 3 similar to thosedescribed above, several additional elements denoted at 31 to 41.

In particular, the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus 1 comprises a prepaid card inputting processing section 31 forreceiving a prepaid card and reading remains information of the prepaidcard, a commodity price retrieval section 32 for retrieving the price ofthe commodity 50 in accordance with the commodity code information readby the commodity code reading section 2, and a data updating section 33for registering a result obtained by subtraction of the price of thecommodity 50 retrieved by the commodity price retrieval section 32 fromthe remains information read by the prepaid card inputting processingsection 31 as remains information of the prepaid card to update theremains information.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 mayfurther comprise a notification section 34 for notifying, when theremains read by the prepaid card inputting processing section 31 runshort of the price of the commodity 50 retrieved by the commodity priceretrieval section 32 and updating by the data updating section 33 cannotbe performed, such shortage, and a selection section 35 for selecting,when the remains read by the prepaid card inputting processing section31 runs short of the price of the commodity 50 retrieved by thecommodity price retrieval section 32, whether the purchasing processingis to be continued inserting a second prepaid card into the prepaid cardinputting processing section 31 or the purchasing processing is to beended.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a receipt issuance section 36 for issuing a receiptupon completion of the purchasing, and a receipt issuance selectionsection 37 for selecting whether the issuance of a receipt by thereceipt issuance section 36 is necessary or unnecessary.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus maycomprise, in place of or in addition to the prepaid card inputtingprocessing section 31, the data updating section 33 and the notificationsection 34, a magnetic card reading section 38 for receiving a creditcard or a bank card and reading magnetic information of the card, and anautomatic clearing processing section 39 for automatically clearing theamount of money corresponding to the price of the commodity 50 retrievedby the commodity price retrieval section 32 from an accountcorresponding to the magnetic information of the card read by themagnetic card reading section 38 some other day.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 mayfurther comprise a data reception section 40 for receiving data from anmanagement section 8, and a power on/off drive section 41 forautomatically turning the power source on/off in response to a poweron/off instruction received from the management section 8 by way of thedata reception section 40.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus mayfurther comprise a weighing equipment 4, a weight determination section5, and an alarm generation section 6 such that the alarm generationsection 6 generates an alarm when it is determined by the weightdetermination section 5 that the total weight of the commodities 50 inthe accommodation section 3 measured by the weighing equipment 4 haschanged without reading a commodity code 50a by the commodity codereading section 2.

With the purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1having a self scanning function described above with reference to FIG.6, final settlement of accounts, which is conventionally performed by asettlement POS terminal, can be performed by self service using aprepaid card, a credit card or a bank card.

In particular, when a prepaid card is used, it is inserted into theprepaid card inputting processing section 31 of the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1. Consequently, remainsinformation of the prepaid card is read by the prepaid card inputtingprocessing section 31, and the price of the commodity 50 is retrieved bythe commodity price retrieval section 32 in accordance with commoditycode information read by the commodity code reading section 2.

Then, the data updating section 33 registers a result obtained bysubtraction of the retrieved price of the commodity 50 from the remainsinformation of the prepaid card as new remains information of theprepaid card to update the remains information of the prepaid cardthereby to settle the accounts for the commodity 50.

On the other hand, when the remains read by the prepaid card inputtingprocessing section 31 run short of the price of the commodity 50retrieved by the commodity price retrieval section 32 and consequentlythe data of the prepaid card cannot be updated by the data updatingsection 33, this is notified from the notification section 34.

When the notification from the notification section 34 is received, thecustomer can select, by way of the selection section 35, whether itinserts a second prepaid card into the prepaid card inputting processingsection 31 to continue its purchasing processing or it ends thepurchasing processing.

Further, a receipt is issued, upon completion of the purchasing, fromthe receipt issuance section 36 provided in the purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus 1. In this instance, whether ornot a receipt should be issued from the receipt issuance section 36 canbe switchably selected in accordance with a demand of the customer byway of the receipt issuance selection section 37.

On the other hand, when a credit card or a bank card is used, it isinserted into the magnetic card reading section 38 so that the magneticinformation thereof is read, and the price of the commodity 50 isretrieved by the commodity price retrieval section 32 in accordance withcommodity code information read by the commodity code reading section 2.

Then, the automatic clearing processing section 39 performs processingto automatically pay the amount of money corresponding to the retrievedprice of the commodity 50 from an account corresponding to the magneticinformation read by the magnetic card reading section 38 some other daythereby to complete settlement of the accounts for the commodity 50.

The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 canautomatically turn the power source on/off by means of the on/off drivesection 41 in response to a power on/off instruction from the uppermanagement section 8 received by way of the data reception section 40.Consequently, the turning on/off of the power source of the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus 1 can be managedwithout an artificial operation of a customer, an operator or some otherperson.

Further, also with the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus 1 in which settlement of accounts is performed byself service using a card, when it is determined by the weightdetermination section 5 that the total weight of commodities 50 in theaccommodation section 3 from the weighing equipment 4 has changedwithout scanning a commodity code 50a by the commodity code readingsection 2, an alarm can be generated immediately from the alarmgeneration section 6 similarly as in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

Thus, with the purchased commodity accommodating and transportingapparatus having a self scanning function, since final settlement ofaccounts can be performed by self service using a prepaid card, a bankcard or a credit cart, not only reduction of the burden on an operatorand reduction of the number of operators can be achieved, but agreeableshopping free from a waiting time at a settlement POS terminal can beachieved and remarkable reduction of the shopping time and remarkableenhancement in convenience in a self shopping form can be realized.

b. First Embodiment

Referring first to FIGS. 7 to 14, there are shown a purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus and a POS system according to afirst preferred embodiment of the present invention. Similarly toconventional POS system, the POS system of the first embodiment actuallyincludes a plurality of purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus and a single management section and may includeone or more settlement POS terminals. However, since the purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus operate independentlyof one another and each cooperates with one of the settlement POSterminals at a time, it is considered that a POS system can beconstructed from a single purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus and a single settlement POS terminal, and unlessotherwise described, the following description of the POS systemproceeds in regard to a single purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus and a single settlement POS terminal in order tosimplify the description. This similarly applies to the otherembodiments hereinafter described.

In the embodiments of the present invention including the firstembodiment described below, the present invention is applied to such ascanning cart or shopping cart 100 as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 as apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having aself scanning function. Referring first to FIGS. 10 and 11, the scanningcart 100 includes a cart section 101 shown in FIG. 10 and a basketmember 102 shown in FIG. 11 which serves as an accommodation section.

The cart section 101 is constructed so as to receive the basket member102 thereon and includes a handle section 103 for being grasped by ausing person such as a customer, and four roller members 104 providedfor rotation on the bottom of the cart section 101. Accordingly, acustomer can accommodate commodities to be purchased into the basketmember 102 while freely moving the cart section 101 on which the basketmember 102 is placed by grasping and pushing the handle section 103 torotate the roller members 104.

The cart section 101 further includes, as hereinafter described indetail with reference also to FIGS. 7 and 8, a scanner 57 for reading abar code applied to a commodity as well as a communication section 53for communicating data from and to an upper control section (managementsection 60 in FIG. 7), a display section 54 for displaying variousinformation, and a keyboard section 55 for inputting variousinformation. Further, the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus in the present embodiment includes, though notshown in FIG. 10 but shown in FIG. 8, a weighing equipment 58 located onthe bottom of the basket member 102 (or the receiving face of the cartsection 101 for receiving the basket member 102 thereon) for measuringthe total weight of commodities accommodated in the basket member 102.

In a POS system which employs the scanning cart 100 of the typedescribed above, generally a customer itself reads a bar code applied toeach commodity to be purchased by means of the scanner 57 to read thecommodity code information into the upper control section (or a storagesection 52 in the scanning cart 100 shown in FIG. 7), places oraccommodates such commodities into the basket member 102, depresses,after selection of commodities to be purchased is completed, an end key(not shown) on the keyboard section 55, and carries them to a settlementPOS terminal (not shown) with the commodities loaded on the scanningcart 100.

It is to be noted that, upon registration of commodity code information,a commodity price file (PLU file) in the scanning cart 100 or the uppercontrol section is retrieved so that information of a commodity number,a commodity name, a price (unit price) and so forth of the registeredcommodity is displayed on the display section 54 of the scanning cart100.

Then, in the settlement POS terminal, the commodity code informationregistered by the customer itself is loaded down from the upper controlsection (or the storage section 52), and in accordance with thecommodity code information, the prices (unit prices) of the commoditiescorresponding to the commodity codes are retrieved from the commodityprice file (PLU file) and then a total amount of money of the purchasedcommodities is calculated to effect settlement of the accounts.

In order to prevent, in the POS system which employs the scanning cart100 of such construction as described above, such an unjust act of acustomer as to accommodate a commodity into the basket member 102without performing reading of the commodity code by means of the scanner57 whether it is intentional or accidental, in the first embodiment ofthe present invention, a control system of the scanning cart 100 and acontrol section 60 are constructed in such a manner as shown in FIGS. 7to 9.

Referring first to FIG. 8, there is shown the hardware construction ofthe control system of the scanning cart 100.

The control system includes a CPU (central processing unit) 51 forcontrolling the entire control system of the scanning cart 100, astorage section 52 for storing a program and various data (registeredinformation and so forth including commodity code information of ascanned commodity), and the communication section 53 for communicatingdata with the management section 60 (or an upper control section such asa station controller or a store controller) by wireless (infrared raysor the like).

The control system further includes the display section 54 fordisplaying various information (commodity information of a scannedcommodity 50, an alarm display which will be hereinafter described, andso forth), the keyboard section 55 for inputting various information,and a battery section 56 for supplying power to the control system ofthe scanning cart 100.

The control system further includes the scanner (bar code reader,commodity code reading section) 57 for optically reading a bar code(commodity code) 50a applied to a commodity 50, the weighing section 58for weighing the total weight of commodities accommodated in the basketmember 102, and a buzzer (alarm sound generation section, alarmgeneration section) 59 for generating sound in response to a controlsignal from the CPU 51 (weighing determination section 51a which will behereinafter described) to generate an alarm.

Meanwhile, the management section 60 has such a hardware construction asshown in FIG. 9. In particular, referring to FIG. 9, the managementsection 60 includes a CPU 61 for controlling the entire managementsection 60, a storage section 62 for storing a program and various data,a communication section 63 for communicating data with the scanning cart100 by wireless (infrared rays or the like), a display section 64 fordisplaying various information, and a keyboard section 65 for inputtingvarious information.

The POS system in the present embodiment is functionally constructed insuch a manner as shown in FIG. 7 from the scanning cart 100 and themanagement section 60 described above.

In particular, referring to FIG. 7, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100has functions as a weight determination section 51a, an alarmcancellation section 51b, a timer 51c, a timer determination section 51dand an error transmission section 51e.

The weight determination section 51a detects the variation of the totalweight of commodities 50 in the basket member 102 weighed by theweighing equipment 58. When it is determined by the weight determinationsection 51a that the total weight of the commodities 50 in the basketmember 102 weighed by the weighing equipment 58 has changed withoutreading a commodity code 50a by means of the scanner 57, the buzzer 59generates sound in response to a control signal from the weightdetermination section 51a, and for example, such an alarm display"please scan before placement into the basket" as shown in FIG. 12 isdisplayed on the display section 54.

The alarm cancellation section 51b cancels the sounding operation of thebuzzer 59 and the alarm display of the display section 54 when it isdetermined by the weight determination section 51a that the total amountof the commodities in the basket member 102 which changed withoutreading a commodity code 50a by means of the scanner 57 has decreased bysuch increment after generation of the alarm.

The timer 51c counts the operation time of the sounding operation of thebuzzer 59 and the operation time of the alarm display of the displaysection 54. The timer 51c is activated to start its counting operationwhen a control signal for generation of an alarm is outputted from theweight determination section 51a. The timer 51c is reset simultaneouslywhen the alarm is canceled by the alarm cancellation section 51b.

The timer determination section 51d determines whether or not the timecounted by the timer 51c has reached a predetermined time. When it isdetermined by the timer determination section 51d that the counted timeby the timer 51c has reached the predetermined time, the errortransmission section 51e transmits unique information (cart numberinformation) of the scanning cart 100, which is in an alarm generatingcondition, as error information to the management section 60. The errorinformation from the error transmission section 51e is transmitted tothe management section 60 by wireless by way of the communicationsection 53.

Meanwhile, in the management section 60, the communication section 63has a function as an error reception section 63a which receives theerror information transmitted thereto from the error transmissionsection 51e of the scanning cart 100 by way of the communication section53.

The display section 64 has a function as an error display section 64afor displaying, when the error information is received by the errorreception section 63a, the cart number which is unique information ofthe scanning cart 100 which has transmitted the error information. Thedisplay of the error display section 64a is provided, for example asshown in FIG. 13, by lighting a portion (lamp or the like) of the errordisplay section 64a corresponding to the cart number (one of "1" to "20"in FIG. 13). In FIG. 13, the display condition when error informationhas been received from the cart number "1" is shown, and it is shownclearly by the mark "*" that the portion indicating the cart number "1"is lit.

The keyboard section 65 has an error cancel key (error cancellationsection) 65a for being depressed when some measure for the scanning cart100 from which the error information has been transmitted (processingagainst an unjust act) is completed to cancel the display (lighting) ofthe cart number of the scanning cart 100 on the error display section64a.

In the POS system of the first embodiment of the present inventionhaving the construction described above, the processing of a procedureillustrated in FIG. 14 is executed for a period of time after a customerstarts use of the scanning cart 100 in order to purchase commodities 50until the end key (not shown) on the keyboard section 55 is depressed toend the purchasing of the commodities 50.

Referring to FIG. 14, if a customer accommodates a commodity 50 into thebasket member 102 of the scanning cart 100 (step A1), then the weightvaried by the accommodation of the commodity 50 is weighed by theweighing equipment 58 (step A2).

When a weight variation (change of the output of the weighing equipment58) is produced in the total weight of the commodities 50 accommodatedin the basket member 102 of the scanning cart 100, this is detected bythe weight determination section 51a, and then, it is determined whetheror not reading (scanning) of the commodity code 50a by the scanner 57has been performed immediately prior to the variation of the weight(step A3).

If scanning has been performed immediately prior, the control sequencereturns, but on the contrary if it is determined that scanning has notbeen performed immediately prior, it is determined that the customer hasaccommodated a commodity 50 into the basket member 102 withoutperforming scanning. Thus, the buzzer 59 is sounded and such an alarmdisplay as shown in FIG. 12 is displayed on the display section 54 (stepA4), and simultaneously the timer 51c is activated to count the timeafter generation of the alarm (step A5).

Thereafter, the weight determination section 51a determines within apredetermined time after the generation of the alarm whether or not thetotal weight of the commodities 50 in the basket member 102 weighed bythe weighing equipment 58 has reduced by an amount equal to theincrement which has been increased immediately prior (step A6). If it isdetected that the total weight has decreased by the increment, then itis determined that the commodity 50 which the customer accommodated intothe basket member 102 without scanning the same has been taken out fromwithin the basket member 102. Consequently, the alarm cancellationsection 51b immediately cancels the sounding operation of the buzzer 59and the alarm display of the display section 54 and simultaneouslyresets the timer 51c (step A7).

On the contrary when it is determined by the timer determination section51d that the counted time by the timer 51c reaches the predeterminedtime, that is, when it is determined that the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the basket member 102 weighed by the weighingequipment 58 has not decreased by the increment increased immediatelyprior even after the predetermined time has elapsed after the generationof the alarm, the cart number of the scanning cart 100 is transmitted aserror information from the error transmission section 51e to themanagement section 60 by way of the communication section 53 (step A8).

In the management section 60 to which the error information has beentransmitted, the error information (cart number) from the scanning cart100 is received by the error reception section 63a (step A9), and thecart number is displayed as shown in FIG. 13 by the error displaysection 64a (step A10).

An operator or some other person can grasp, by referring to the errordisplay section 64a, the scanning cart 100 which has conducted an unjustact (an act of accommodating a commodity into the basket member 102without performing scanning) whether it has been intentional oraccidental. Thus, after the operator completes some countermeasure forthe scanning cart 100, it will depress the error cancellation key 65a ofthe keyboard section 65 to cancel the error display (lighting display ofthe cart number) of the error display section 64a (step A11).

In this manner, according to the first embodiment of the presentinvention, when it is determined by the weight determination section 51athat the total weight of the commodities 50 in the basket member 102from the weighing equipment 58 has increased without scanning acommodity code 50a, a sounding operation of the buzzer 59 and an alarmdisplay of the display section 54 can be performed immediately to give awarning to the customer. Consequently, such an unjust act that acustomer accommodates a commodity 50 into the basket member 102 missinga scanning operation or accommodates a commodity 50 into the basketmember 102 without performing scanning intentionally can be preventedwith certainty.

On the other hand, when a customer accommodates a commodity 50 into thebasket member 102 missing a scanning operation of a commodity code 50ain error, if a warning by a sounding operation of the buzzer 59 and analarm display of the display section 54 is given and the commodity 50 istaken out immediately from the basket member 102, then the alarmingcondition is immediately canceled by the alarm cancellation section 51b.Consequently, a warning of missing of scanning by accident can be givenwithout checking it on a settlement POS terminal by an operator or alike person and an unjust act can be prevented with certainty withoutgiving a disagreeable feeling to the customer.

Further, in the present embodiment, if a customer ignores such an alarmas described above and does not take out the commodity 50 for whichscanning has not been performed, then the cart number of the scanningcart 100 with which such act has been performed is transmitted as errorinformation to and displayed on the management section 60. Consequently,some countermeasure can be taken immediately for the scanning cart 100with which the unjust act has been performed.

It is to be noted that, while, in the embodiment described above, analarm is generated when the total weight of the commodities 50 hasincreased without scanning operation, an alarm may be generated alsowhen the total weight of the commodities 50 has decreased withoutscanning operation. Normally, in order to cancel purchase of a commodity50 whose commodity code 50a has been read once, the commodity 50 istaken out from the basket section 102 and the commodity code 50a of itis scanned, whereafter a cancel key or a like element is manuallyoperated. When such cancellation processing is necessitated, if acommodity 50 whose purchase should be canceled is taken out from thebasket section 102 without scanning the same, then an alarm is generatedsince the total weight has decreased without scanning operation asdescribed above. Consequently, it can be notified to the customer thatthe customer has missed cancellation processing.

c. Second Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 15 to 17, there is shown a purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus according to a secondembodiment of the present invention. Also in the present embodiment, thepresent invention is applied to the scanning cart 100 shown in FIGS. 10and 11. The purchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatusin the present embodiment is a modification to and includes severalcommon components to the purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus in the first embodiment described above, andoverlapping description of such common components is omitted herein toavoid redundancy. This similarly applies to the remaining embodiment ofthe present invention which will be hereinafter described.

Referring first to FIG. 16, the hardware construction of the controlsystem of the scanning cart 100 in the present embodiment is differentfrom that in the first embodiment (refer to FIG. 8) in that itadditionally includes a commodity information file 66.

The commodity information file 66 is normally used as a PLU file andstores commodity information such as commodity numbers, commodity namesand prices (unit prices) corresponding to commodity code information. Inthe present embodiment, however, also weight information of individualcommodities 50 corresponding to the commodity code information is storedas commodity information in the commodity information file 66. It is tobe noted that the weight information of each commodity 50 need not beheld in the commodity information file 66 as described above, but mayalternatively be provided in the form of a bar code on each commodity50.

The control system of the scanning cart 100 in the present embodiment isfunctionally constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG. 15.

Referring now to FIG. 15, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100 has afunction as the weight determination section 51a similar to that in thefirst embodiment and further has functions as a commodity informationretrieval section (commodity weight retrieval section) 51f, a weightincrement calculation section 51g, a weight comparison section 51h, anda commodity code registration section 51i.

The commodity information retrieval section 51f retrieves commodityinformation (a commodity number, a commodity name, a price (unit price),and a weight) of a commodity 50 in accordance with commodity codeinformation obtained by reading the bar code 50a by means of the scanner57.

The weight increment calculation section 51g calculates, after the barcode 50a is read by the scanner 57, the increment in weight increased asthe commodity whose bar code 50a has been read is accommodated into thebasket section 102. The weight increment calculation section 51gincludes a buffer 51g-1 for storing a measured weight value by theweighing equipment 58 before an increase of the weight, and a differencecalculation section 51g-2 for calculating the difference value betweenthe measured weight value stored in the buffer 51g-1 and the measuredvalue by the weighing equipment 58 after the increase of the weight,that is, the increment in weight.

The weight comparison section 51h compares the weight based on thecommodity code of a commodity 50 whose bar code 50a has been read in thepresent cycle by the scanner 57 (weight retrieved by the commodityinformation retrieval section 51f) and the increment in total weight ofcommodities 50 in the accommodation section or basket member 102 afterreading of the commodity code obtained from the weighing equipment 58and the weight increment calculation section 51g.

When it is determined by the weight comparison section 51h that theretrieved weight by the commodity information retrieval section 51f andthe increment in total weight calculated by the weight incrementcalculation section 51g are different from each other, a soundingoperation of the buzzer 59 is performed.

The commodity code registration section 51i registers or storescommodity code information read from the bar code 50a of a commodity 50by the scanner 57 or a result of retrieval retrieved by the commodityinformation retrieval section 51f as registered data into the storagesection 52 in the scanning cart 100 by the commodity code registrationsection 51i.

It is to be noted that, also in the present embodiment, the weightdetermination section 51a similar to that of the first embodiment isprovided, and when it is determined by the weight determination section51a that the total weight of commodities 50 in the basket section 102measured by the weighing equipment 58 has increased without reading abar code 50a by the scanner 57, a sounding operation of the buzzer 59and an alarming display by the display section 54 are performed.

In the scanning cart 100 of the second embodiment of the presentinvention having the construction described above, the processing of theprocedure illustrated in FIG. 17 is executed for a period of time aftera customer begins use of the scanning cart 100 in order to purchasecommodities 50 until it depresses the end key (not shown) on thekeyboard section 55 to end the purchasing of commodities 50.

In particular, if a customer reads the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 tobe purchased by means of the scanner 57 (step B1), then the commodityinformation retrieval section 51f retrieves the weight of the commoditycorresponding to the commodity code information from the commodityinformation file 66.

In this instance, in the present embodiment, also the commodity name andthe price (unit price) of the commodity corresponding to the commoditycode information are simultaneously retrieved from the commodityinformation file 66 by the commodity information retrieval section 51f,and the commodity name and the price (unit price) of the retrievedcommodity are displayed on the display section 54 (step B2). The thusscanned commodity code information and the data obtained by retrievalare registered or stored as registered data into the storage section 52by the commodity code registration section 51i (step B3).

When the customer accommodates, after the bar code 50a of the commodity50 has been scanned, the commodity 50 into the basket section 102 of thescanning cart 100 (step B4), the total weight of the commodities in thebasket section 102 into which the new commodity 50 has been accommodatedis measured by the weighing equipment 58 (step B5).

Then, the difference value between the measured weight value stored inthe buffer 51g-1 and the measured weight value by the weighing equipment58 after the weight has increased is calculated as an increment inweight, that is, the weight of the commodity 50 which has just beenaccommodated newly into the basket section 102 by hand of the customerby the difference calculation section 51g-2 of the weight incrementcalculation section 51g. The increment in weight from the weightincrement calculation section 51g and the weight corresponding to thecommodity code information retrieved from the commodity information file66 by the commodity information retrieval section 51f are compared witheach other by the weight comparison section 51h (step B6).

If the comparison by the weight comparison section 16 reveals that theweights are equal to each other (substantially equal within apredetermined tolerance), that is, if the determination at step B7 isNO, the control sequence returns in order to wait for reading of a nextbar code 50a.

On the contrary if it is determined at step B7 that the actual incrementin weight and the weight corresponding to the commodity code informationare different from each other, the buzzer 59 is sounded to notify anerror to the customer (step B8). The sounding operation of the buzzer 59is continued until the actual increment in weight and the weightcorresponding to the commodity code information become coincident witheach other, thereby to prevent reading or registration of a nextcommodity code. It is to be noted that the error notification to thecustomer may be performed not only by the sounding operation of thebuzzer 59 but also by an alarm displaying operation of the displaysection 54.

Further, in the present embodiment, similarly as in the firstembodiment, while the scanning cart 100 is used in order for a customerto purchase commodities, the total weight of the commodities 50 in thebasket section 102 of the scanning cart 100 is normally supervised bythe weighing equipment 58 and the weight determination section 51a, andwhen it is determined that the total weight of the commodities 50 in thebasket section 102 from the weighing equipment 58 has increased withoutscanning a bar code 50a, a warning to the customer is immediately giventhere by a sounding operation of the buzzer 59 and an alarm display ofthe display section 54.

In this manner, according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention, when an intentional unjust act such as to accommodate aplurality of commodities at a time into the basket section 102 whilescanning (registering) part of the commodities, to accommodate acommodity having a different weight from that of a registered commodityinto the basket section 102 or to accommodate a commodity into thebasket section 102 without scanning (registering) the same is performedor when an inadvertent (accidental) unjust act such as a miss ofscanning or a scanning error occurs, the unjust act is detected bychecking the total weight of the commodities 50 in the basket section102. Consequently, such unjust acts as described above can be preventedwith certainty.

Accordingly, similar safety to that of a conventional POS system inwhich settlement of accounts is performed by way of a scanning operationof an operator can be provided to a store side which has adopted thepresent POS system, and better services can be provided to the storeside and customers.

It is to be noted that, while the commodity information file 66 in theembodiment described above is provided in the control system of thescanning cart 100, the commodity information file may alternatively beprovided in an upper control section, and in this instance, retrieval ofweight information is performed by way of communications between thecommodity information retrieval section 51f and the upper controlsection having the commodity information file by way of thecommunication section 53.

Further, while, in the embodiment described above, commodity codeinformation read from the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 by the scanner57 is registered or stored into the storage section 52 in the scanningcart 100 by the commodity code registration section 51i, the commoditycode information may otherwise be transmitted to the upper controlsection by way of the communication section 53 so that it may beregistered or stored into the storage section in the upper controlsection.

d. Third Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 18 to 21, there is shown a POS system accordingto a third embodiment of the present invention. The POS system of thepresent embodiment is a modification to the POS system in the firstembodiment described above and similarly employs the scanning cart 100shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. In the POS system of the present embodiment,the control system of the scanning cart 100 and a settlement POSterminal 70 are constructed in such a manner as shown in FIGS. 19 and20, respectively, in order to prevent an intentional or accidentalunjust act.

Referring first to FIG. 18, the hardware construction of the controlsystem of the scanning cart 100 in the present embodiment is differentfrom that of the first embodiment (refer to FIG. 8) in that itadditionally includes an optical adapter (data transmission section) 67.

The optical adapter 67 is provided for communicating, upon finalsettlement of accounts at the settlement POS terminal 70, an opticalsignal with another optical adapter 79 on the settlement POS terminal 70side and transmits the total weight of commodities 50 in the basketsection 102 weighed by the weighing equipment 58 and further transmitscommodity code registered data stored in the storage section 52.

Meanwhile, the settlement POS terminal 70 is provided for retrieving acommodity information file 81, which will be hereinafter described, inaccordance with commodity code information registered in the commoditycode registration section 51i of the scanning cart 100 to effect finalsettlement of accounts for the purchased commodities accommodated in thebasket section 102 of the scanning cart 100. The settlement POS terminal70 in the present embodiment has such hardware construction as shown inFIG. 20.

In particular, referring to FIG. 20, the settlement POS terminal 70includes a CPU 71 for controlling the entire settlement POS terminal 70,a storage section 72 for storing a program and various data, acommunication section 73 for communicating data with an upper controlsection such as a station controller or a store controller by wireless(infrared rays or the like), a display section 74 for displaying variousinformation (a receipt image of a result of settlement of accounts, analarm display which will be hereinafter described, and so forth), akeyboard section 75 for inputting various information, and a drawer 76(drawer section) for accommodating cash therein.

The settlement POS terminal 70 further includes a printer (receiptissuance section) 77 for issuing a result of settlement of accounts as areceipt, a scanner (bar code reader) 78 for reading a bar code at thesettlement POS terminal 70 when necessary, and an optical adapter (datareception section) 79 for communicating an optical signal with theoptical adapter 67 on the scanning cart 100 side as describedhereinabove. Commodity total weight data or commodity code registereddata from the scanning cart 100 is received by the optical adapter 79.

The settlement POS terminal 70 further includes a buzzer (alarm soundgeneration section, alarm generation section) 80 for generating sound inresponse to a control signal from the CPU 71 to generate an alarm, and acommodity information file 81 similar to the commodity information file66 of the second embodiment. The commodity information file 81 isnormally used as a PLU file and has commodity information such ascommodity numbers, commodity names, prices (unit prices), weights and soforth corresponding to commodity code information.

The POS system of the third embodiment is functionally constructed insuch a manner as shown in FIG. 18 from the scanning cart 100 and thesettlement POS terminal 70 described above.

In particular, referring to FIG. 18, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100has functions as the weight determination section 51a and the commoditycode registration section 51i described above and further has a functionas an optical transmission processing section 51j.

The optical transmission processing section 51j performs, uponsettlement of accounts at the settlement POS terminal 70, processing fortransmitting the total weight of the commodities 50 in the basketsection 102 measured by the weighing equipment 58 and the commodity coderegistered data stored in the storage section 52 to the settlement POSterminal 70 side by the optical adapter 67.

Meanwhile, the CPU 71 in the settlement POS terminal 70 has functions asa commodity information retrieval section (commodity weight retrievalsection) 71a, a total weight calculation section 71b and a weightcomparison section 71c.

The commodity information retrieval section 71a retrieves commodityinformation (commodity numbers, commodity names, prices (unit prices),weights) of all of the commodities 50 registered at the scanning cart100 from the commodity information file 81 in accordance with the entirecommodity code information (registered data) transmitted thereto fromthe scanning cart 100 side by way of the optical adapters 67 and 79.

The total weight calculation section 71b receives the weight informationof all of the commodities 50 registered at the scanning cart 100retrieved by the commodity information retrieval section 71a andcalculates a total weight of the weights of all of the commodities.

The weight comparison section 71c compares the total weight calculatedby the total weight calculation section 71b and the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the basket section 102 received from the scanning cart100 side by way of the optical adapter 79.

If it is determined by the weight comparison section 71c that the totalweight calculated by the total weight calculation section 71b and thetotal weight of the commodities received from the scanning cart 100 sideare different from each other, the buzzer 80 is sounded and an alarmdisplay is displayed on the display section 74 in response to a controlsignal from the weight comparison section 71c.

It is to be noted that, also in the present embodiment, the weightdetermination section 51a similar to that of the first embodiment isprovided in the scanning cart 100, and when it is determined by theweight determination section 51a that the total weight of thecommodities 50 in the basket section 102 measured by the weighingequipment 58 has increased without reading a bar code 50a by the scanner57, a sounding operation of the buzzer 59 and an alarm display of thedisplay section 54 are performed.

The POS system of the third embodiment of the present invention havingthe construction described above operates in such a manner asillustrated in FIG. 21. Referring to FIG. 21, a customer itself willread the bar code 50a applied to a commodity to be purchased by means ofthe scanner 57 to register the commodity code information into thestorage section 52 and load or accommodate the commodity into the basketsection 102 (step C1). Then, it will depress the end key on the keyboardsection 55 to end selection of commodities to be purchased (step C2),place the commodities into the scanning cart 100 and transport them tothe settlement POS terminal 70.

Then, upon settlement of accounts at the settlement POS terminal 70, thecommodity code information registered by the customer itself istransmitted from the storage section 52 of the scanning cart 100 to thesettlement POS terminal 70 side by way of the optical transmissionprocessing section 51j and the optical adapters 67 and 79, and thecommodity information retrieval section 71a retrieves, in accordancewith the individual commodity code information transmitted thereto, theprices (unit prices) of the commodities corresponding to the commoditycode information from the commodity information file 81, calculates thetotal amount of the purchased commodities, and performs issuance of areceipt by the printer 77 or the like to effect final settlement of theaccounts.

Upon settlement processing by such settlement POS terminal 70, in thepresent embodiment, the total weight of the commodities in the basketsection 102 of the scanning cart 100 is measured by the weighingequipment 58 (step C3), and the total weight of the commodities istransmitted to the settlement POS terminal 70 side by way of the opticaltransmission processing section 51j and the optical adapters 67 and 79(step C4).

Meanwhile, at the settlement POS terminal 70, the weights of thecommodities 50 are retrieved from the commodity information file 81 bythe commodity information retrieval section 71a in accordance with thecommodity code information transmitted from the storage section 52 ofthe scanning cart 100 to the settlement POS terminal 70 side by way ofthe optical transmission processing section 51j and the optical adapters67 and 79, and the total weight of the retrieved weights of thecommodities 50 is calculated by the total weight calculation section 71b(step C5).

Then, the total weight calculated by the total weight calculationsection 71b and the total weight data of the commodities from thescanning cart 100 are compared with each other by the weight comparisonsection 71c (step C6), and when it is determined, as a result of thecomparison, that those weights coincide with each other (actuallysubstantially coincide with each other within a predeterminedtolerance), that is, when the determination at step C7 is YES, accountsettlement processing by the settlement POS terminal 70 is ended.

On the contrary when it is determined at step C7 that the weightsdescribed above do not coincide with each other, the buzzer 80 issounded and an alarm display is displayed on the display section 74 tonotify the error to the customer and an operator of the settlement POSterminal 70 so as to take some countermeasure against the unjust act(step C8).

Further, in the present embodiment, similarly as in the firstembodiment, while a customer uses the scanning cart 100 in order topurchase commodities, the total weight of the commodities 50 in thebasket section 102 of the scanning cart 100 is normally monitored by theweight determination section 51a, and when it is determined that thetotal weight of the commodities 50 in the basket section 102 from theweighing equipment 58 has increased without scanning a bar code 50a, awarning to the customer is immediately given there by a soundingoperation of the buzzer 59 and an alarm display of the display section54.

In this manner, according to the third embodiment of the presentinvention, similar effects to those of the second embodiment areobtained.

It is to be noted that, while the commodity information file 81 in theembodiment described above is provided in the settlement POS terminal70, it may alternatively be provided in an upper control section. Inthis instance, retrieval of weight information is performed bycommunications between the commodity information retrieval section 71aand the upper control section which has the commodity information file81 by way of a communication section 83.

Further, while, in the embodiment described above, commodity codeinformation read from the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 by the scanner57 is registered or stored into the storage section 52 in the scanningcart 100 by the commodity code registration section 51i, the commoditycode information may alternatively be transmitted to the upper controlsection by way of the communication section 53 so that it may beregistered or stored into a storage section of the upper controlsection.

In this instance, upon settlement of the accounts at the settlement POSterminal 70, the commodity code information registered by the scanningcart 100 is transmitted from the upper control section to the commodityinformation retrieval section 71a by way of the communication section73. In this instance, also total weight information of the commoditiesupon settlement of the accounts from the weighing equipment 58 mayadditionally be transmitted to the settlement POS terminal 70 side byway of the communication section 53, the upper control section and thecommunication section 73, and where such data transmission is performed,the optical adapters 67 and 79 may be omitted.

e. Fourth Embodiment

Referring now to FIG. 22, there is shown a purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus according to a fourthembodiment of the present invention. The purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus of the present embodiment is amodification to that in the first embodiment described above andsimilarly employs the scanning cart 100 shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

While the hardware construction of the control system of the scanningcart 100 in the fourth embodiment is substantially similar to that ofthe first embodiment (refer to FIG. 8), in the present embodiment, theweighing instrument 58 for measuring the total weight of commodities 50in the basket section 102 is omitted. Meanwhile, the scanner 57 in thepresent embodiment is used to read, upon random scan checking (whichwill be hereinafter described) which is performed by an operator uponsettlement of accounts, the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 selected atrandom from the commodities accommodated in the basket section 102.

The control system of the scanning cart 100 in the present embodiment isfunctionally constructed in such a manner as illustrated in FIG. 22.

In particular, referring to FIG. 22, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100has functions as a main control section 51k, a commodity registrationcontrol section 51m, a random scan control section (commodityregistration determination section) 51n, a commodity code readingcontrol section 51p, a commodity information display control section(commodity price retrieval section) 51q, a commodity code registrationsection 51r, and an error notification section 51s.

The main control section 51k controls the CPU 51 and effects, forexample, input control (input control upon starting of use of thescanning cart 100 (depression of the start key), upon ending ofpurchasing (depression of the end key), upon ending of random scanchecking and so forth) of various data from the keyboard section 55,accessing to the commodity registration control section 51m duringshopping, accessing to the random scan control section 51n upon startingof random scan checking, and some other necessary control.

The commodity code reading control section 51p is provided to controlreading of a bar code 50a by the scanner 57 and controls inputting ofcommodity code information obtained by reading the bar code 50a by thescanner 57 to the CPU 51.

The commodity registration control section 51m is accessed from andactivated by the main control section 51k upon inputting of starting ofuse from the keyboard section 55 by a customer. The commodityregistration control section 51m reads in, during shopping of thecustomer, commodity code information from the scanner 57 by thecommodity code reading control section 51p and registers or stores(saves) the commodity code information into the storage section(commodity code registering memory) 52 using the commodity coderegistration section 51r.

The commodity information display control section (commodity priceretrieval section) 51q is activated together with the commodityregistration control section 51m and, simultaneously when commodity codeinformation read in by the scanner 57 and the commodity code readingcontrol section 51p is registered, performs, based on the commodity codeinformation thus read in, retrieval of commodity information such as theprice of the commodity from the commodity information file (not shown inFIG. 22) described hereinabove, whereafter it controls the displaysection 54 to display a result of the retrieval (the commodity name andthe price (unit price)), the purchased quantity and the total amount ofmoney thereon.

It is to be noted that the commodity information file may be provided inthe control system of the scanning cart 100 or alternatively may beprovided in the upper control section such as a station controller.However, where the commodity information file is provided in the uppercontrol section, retrieval of commodity information such as a price isperformed by way of communications between the commodity informationdisplay control section 51q and the upper control section having thecommodity information file by way of the communication section 53.

The random scan control section (commodity registration determinationsection) 51n is accessed from and activated by the main control section51k when a customer depresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 inorder to end its shopping, and has a function of determining whether ornot commodity code information read in from the commodity code readingcontrol section 51p upon a random scan checking operation (an operationof scanning the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 selected at random fromwithin the basket section 102 by means of the scanner 57) by an operatorof a settlement POS terminal has been registered into the storagesection 52 by the commodity code registration section 51r.

The error notification section 51s is activated when it is determined bythe random scan control section 51n that commodity code information readin upon a random scan checking operation has not been registered, andcauses the buzzer 59 to perform a sounding operation and causes thedisplay section 54 to display an error message to notify the error tothe customer or the operator.

Further, in the present embodiment, when it is determined by the randomscan control section 51n that commodity code information read in upon arandom scan checking operation has not been registered, the commoditycode information of the commodity which has not been registered isautomatically registered into the storage section 52 using the commodityregistration control section 51m and the commodity code registrationsection 51r.

In the scanning cart 100 in the fourth embodiment of the presentinvention having the construction described above, when a customerstarts shopping using the scanning cart 100, the start key of thekeyboard section 55 will first be depressed to perform inputting ofstarting of use, whereupon the commodity registration control section51m is started by the main control section 51k.

For a period of time until inputting of ending of use is performed fromthe keyboard section 55 after starting of use, the customer scans thebar code 50a of a commodity 50 to be purchased by means of the scanner57 so that commodity code information is read in from the scanner 57 bymeans of the commodity code reading control section 51p (step D1), andthen accommodates the commodity into the basket section 102.

Then, after the commodity code information is read in, the commoditycode information is registered or stored into the storage section 52using the commodity code registration section 51r by the commodityregistration control section 51m (step D2).

Meanwhile, in accordance with the commodity code information, commodityinformation such as the price of the commodity is retrieved from thecommodity information file by the commodity information display controlsection 51q (step D3), and a result (commodity name, price (unit price))of the retrieval, the amount to be purchased and the total amount ofmoney are displayed on the display section 54 (step D4).

The processes at the steps D1 to D4 are repeated until the customerdepresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 to effect inputting ofending of use (step D5).

When the customer depresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 toend its shopping, the random scan control section 51n is activated bythe main control section 51k so that a random scan checking condition isentered. The activated condition of the random scan control section 51nis continued until inputting of ending the random scan checking isperformed from the keyboard section 55 (step D6).

At the settlement POS terminal, upon settlement of the accounts, randomscan checking is performed for a commodity in the basket section 102 ofthe scanning cart 100 by the operator. In particular, the operator ofthe settlement POS terminal selects a commodity 50 at random from withinthe basket section 102 and scans the bar code 50a of the commodity 50 bymeans of the scanner 57 to read in commodity code information from thescanner 57 by the commodity code reading control section 51p (step D7).

Thereafter, it is determined by the random scan control section 51nwhether or not the commodity code information read in at random in sucha manner as described above is registered in the storage section 52(step D8). When it is determined that the commodity code information isregistered, the control sequence returns to step D6, but when it isdetermined that the commodity code information is not registered as yet,the error notification section 51s is activated so that sounding of thebuzzer 59 and error message display of the display section 54 areperformed by the error notification section 51s so that the error thatthe commodity has not been registered is notified to the customer or theoperator (step D9).

Then, the commodity code information which has been determined that ithas not been registered is automatically registered or stored into thestorage section 52 using the commodity registration control section 51mand the commodity code registration section 51r in a similar manner asat steps D2 to D4 described above (step D10), and in accordance with thecommodity code information, commodity information such as the price ofthe commodity is retrieved from the commodity informations file by thecommodity information display control section 51q (step D11). Then, aresult of the retrieval (the commodity name and the price (unit price))and so forth are displayed on the display section 54 (step d12).

In this manner, according to the fourth embodiment of the presentinvention, upon settlement of the accounts at the settlement POSterminal or the like, random scan checking can be performed by theoperator using the scanner 57, and if there is a commodity which hasbeen accommodated into the basket section 102 without performingscanning whether it is intentional or accidental, then the unjust actcan be notified as an error and the commodity can be automaticallyregistered.

Accordingly, an unjust act by a customer such as shoplifting can beprevented without imposing a burden on an operator of a settlement POSterminal and without taking such a countermeasure as to change the colorof the bar code 50a, and occurrence of an unjust act upon introductionof a POS system which involves self scanning can be prevented withcertainty.

f. Fifth Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 24 to 27, there is shown a POS system accordingto a fifth embodiment of the present invention. The POS system of thepresent embodiment is a modification to the POS system in the firstembodiment described above and similarly employs the scanning cart 100shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

In the present fifth embodiment, in order to prevent an intentional oraccidental unjust act in the POS system which employs such scanning cart100 as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the control system of the scanning cart100, the settlement POS terminal 70 and a controller (upper controlsection) 90 are constructed in such a manner as shown in FIGS. 24 to 26.

While the hardware construction of the control system of the scanningcart 100 in the present embodiment is substantially similar to that ofthe first embodiment (refer to FIG. 8), in the present embodiment, themeasuring instrument reference numeral 58 for measuring the total weightof the commodities 50 in the basket section 102 and the buzzer 59 may beomitted.

Meanwhile, the settlement POS terminal 70 in the present embodimentperforms final settlement of accounts for purchased commoditiesaccommodated in the basket section 102 of the scanning cart 100 inaccordance with a detailed log (produced in accordance with commoditycode information registered from the scanning cart 100) from a detailedlog file (which will be hereinafter described) of the controller 90, andthe hardware construction of the settlement POS terminal 70 issubstantially similar to that of the third embodiment (refer to FIG.20). However, in the present embodiment, the optical adapter 79 and thebuzzer 80 are omitted while a resonance tag detection section 82 isadditionally provided as shown in FIG. 25.

The resonance tag detection section 82 detects a resonance tag 28applied in advance to each commodity 50 together with a bar code 50a todetect the number of commodities 50 accommodated in the basket member102 of the scanning cart 100, and is constructed including an antennasection provided on the opposite sides of a passage of the scanning cart100 to a settlement position at the settlement POS terminal 70.

The resonance tag 28 is constructed as a label which has a built-inresonance circuit therein.

Where resonance tags having resonance frequencies all different from oneanother are used for as such resonance tag 28, when the scanning cart100 passes the antenna section of the resonance tag detection section82, the frequency of radio waves of the antenna section is varied so asto transmit radio waves of frequencies with which resonance tags 28resonate, thereby to establish resonance with all of the resonance tags28. In this instance, the number of the resonance tags 28, that is, thenumber of the commodities 50 in the basket section 102, can be detectedfrom the number of resonance reactions returned from the resonance tags28.

On the other hand, where resonance tags having an equal frequency areused for the resonance tag 28 for all commodities 50, when the scanningcart 100 passes the antenna section of the resonance tag detectionsection 82, radio waves of the frequency with which the resonance tags28 resonate are transmitted from the antenna section so that they mayresonate with all of the resonance tag 28. In this instance, the numberof the resonance tags 28, that is, the number of the commodities 50 inthe basket section 102, can be detected from the magnitude (totalmagnitude) of the resonance reactions.

The controller 90 is an upper control section (for example, a stationcontroller) for controlling the scanning cart 100 and the settlement POSterminal 70. The hardware construction of the controller 90 of the fifthembodiment is such as shown in FIG. 26.

In particular, referring to FIG. 26, the controller 90 includes a CPU 91for controlling the entire controller 90, a storage section 92 forstoring a program and various data, a communication section 93 forcommunicating data with the scanning cart 100 or the settlement POSterminal 70 by wireless (infrared rays and so forth), and a displaysection 94 for displaying various information (a screen edited by theCPU 91 as hereinafter described and so forth). The controller 90 furtherincludes a commodity information file 95 used as a PLU file, in whichcommodity numbers, commodity names, prices (unit prices) and so forthcorresponding to commodity code information are stored. The controller90 further includes a detailed log file 96 for storing a detailed logproduced in accordance with commodity code information registered fromthe scanning cart 100.

The POS system of the fifth embodiment is functionally constructed asillustrated in FIG. 24 from the scanning cart 100, the settlement POSterminal 70 and the controller 90 described above.

In particular, referring to FIG. 24, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100has functions as an input control section 51t, an inquiring processingcontrol section 51u, a screen data reception control section 51v, and adisplay control section 51w.

The input control section 51t executes input control for reading keyinput data from the keyboard section 55 and commodity code informationread by the scanner 57 into the CPU 51.

The inquiring processing control section (commodity code registrationsection) 51u has a function of producing an inquiring telegraph havingcommodity code information of a commodity 50 read by the scanner 57 andtransmitting the inquiring telegram to the controller 90 by way of thecommunication section 53 to register the commodity code information, andhas another function of demanding screen data produced on the controller90 side in accordance with the commodity code information as hereinafterdescribed.

The screen data reception control section 51v receives screen datatransmitted thereto from the controller 90 side by way of thecommunication section 53 in response to an inquiring telegraphtransmitted from the inquiring processing control section 51u to thecontroller 90. The display control section 51w controls the displaysection 54 to display the screen data from the screen data receptioncontrol section 51v thereon.

The CPU 71 of the settlement POS terminal 70 has functions as an inputcontrol section 71d, a transmission demanding section 71e, a datareception control section 71f, a commodity number comparison section71g, and a POS-I/O control section 71h.

The input control section 71d performs input control for reading keyinput data from the keyboard section 75 (for example, cart number dataof a scanning cart 100 which makes an object for settlement of accountsat a settlement POS terminal 70) into the CPU 71. The transmissiondemanding section 71e demands, upon settlement of accounts, thecontroller 90 for transmission of a detailed log (detailed data) of acart number from the input control section 71d.

The data reception control section 71f controls the communicationsection 53 to receive a detailed log transmitted thereto from thecontroller 90 side in response to a detailed log transmission demandfrom the transmission demanding section 71e.

The commodity number comparison section 71g compares the number of thecommodities 50 detected by the resonance tag detection section 82 andthe number of registered commodities obtained by referring to detailedlogs received by the data reception control section 71f.

The POS-I/O control section 71h controls a printing operation of ajournal/receipt by the printer 77, delivery of money by opening andclosing operations of the drawer 76 and a reading operation by thescanner 78.

The CPU 91 of the controller 90 has functions as a communication controlsection 91a, a commodity price retrieval section 91b, a calculationprocessing section 91c, a screen data edition section 91d, a filecontrol section 91e, and a detailed log file transmission controlsection 91f.

The communication control section 91a controls communications of data(an inquiring telegram, screen data to be displayed on the displaysection 54, and so forth) with the scanning cart 100 and the settlementPOS terminal 70 by way of the communication section 93. The commodityprice retrieval section 91b retrieves, in accordance with commodity codeinformation of a commodity 50 read by the scanner 57 and transmittedthereto from the scanning cart 100 side, the commodity name, the price(unit price) and so forth of the commodity 50 from the commodityinformation file 95.

The calculation processing section 91c sums prices obtained byretrieving the commodity information file 95 in accordance withcommodity code information from the scanning cart 100 by means of thecommodity price retrieval section 91b to calculates the total amount ofmoney of the purchased commodities 50 accommodated in the basket section102 of the scanning cart 100.

The screen data edition section 91d produces, each time an inquiringtelegram from a scanning cart 100 is received, new screen data in whichthe price of a commodity obtained in accordance with newly registeredcommodity code information is involved.

By the screen data edition section 91d, image data are produced in sucha receipt image (receipt printed by the printer 77 of the settlement POSterminal 70) as shown, for example, in FIG. 27 wherein commodityinformation such as the price, the commodity name, the commodity numberand so forth obtained by retrieval of the commodity price retrievalsection 91b and a total amount of money calculated by the calculationprocessing section 91c are displayed. The screen data produced inresponse to the inquiring telegram from the scanning cart 100 in thismanner are transmitted to the scanning cart 100 by way of thecommunication control section 91a and the communication section 93.

The file control section 91e makes a detailed log from a result ofretrieval by the commodity price retrieval section 91b in accordancewith commodity data information and so forth and controls storage of thedetailed log into the detailed log file 96 in response to the cartnumber of the scanning cart 100. The file control section 91e also has afunction of counting up, each time new commodity code information(inquiring telegram) is transmitted thereto, the number of suchtransmissions to count the number of scanned commodities and storing thecounted number of commodities as information into the detailed log.

The detailed log file transmission control section 91f reads out, uponreception of a detailed log transmission demand from the transmissiondemanding section 71e of the settlement POS terminal 70, a detailed logcorresponding to cart number information included in the detailed logtransmission demand from the detailed log file 96 and controlstransmission of the detailed log to the settlement POS terminal 70 byway of the communication section 93.

In the POS system of the fifth embodiment of the present inventionhaving the construction described above, a customer reads the bar code50a applied to a commodity to be purchased by means of the scanner 57and inputs commodity code information of the bar code 50a (step E1), andthen places and accommodates the commodity into the basket section 102.

In the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100, each time commodity codeinformation is read by the scanner 57, an inquiring telegram having thecommodity code information is produced by the inquiring processingcontrol section 51u and transmitted to the controller 90 by way of thecommunication section 53 (step E2). Consequently, the commodity codeinformation read by the scanner 57 is registered on the controller 90side.

In the meantime, in the CPU 91 of the controller 90 having received theinquiring telegram by way of the communication section 93, the inquiringtelegram is inputted by the communication control section 91a, and thecommodity information file 95 is retrieved (PLU) by the commodity priceretrieval section 91b in accordance with the commodity code informationincluded in the inquiring telegram so that commodity information such asthe commodity number, the commodity tame, the price (unit price) and soforth of the commodity 50 corresponding to the commodity codeinformation is obtained (step E3).

In this instance, a result of the retrieval by the commodity priceretrieval section 91b in accordance with the commodity code informationis stored as a detailed log into the detailed log file 96 in accordancewith the cart number of the scanning cart 100, which has transmitted theinquiring telegram, by the file control section 91e. Upon such storagecontrol, also the number of commodities in the scanning cart 100 countedup each time new commodity code information (inquiring telegram) istransmitted thereto is written into the detailed log by the file controlsection 91e (step E4).

Then, in the CPU 91, the prices retrieved by the commodity priceretrieval section 91b are summed by the calculation processing section91c to calculate the total amount of money of the purchased commodities50 accommodated in the basket section 102 of the scanning cart 100.

Thereafter, screen data of such a receipt image as shown in FIG. 27 isproduced by the screen data edition section 91d in accordance withcommodity information such as the price, the commodity name, thecommodity number and so forth retrieved for new commodity codeinformation each time an inquiring telegram is received from thescanning cart 100 and the total amount of money calculated by thecalculation processing section 91c (step E5).

The screen data produced in this manner are transmitted to the scanningcart 100 by way of the communication control section 91a and thecommunication section 93 (step E6). On the scanning cart 100 side, thescreen data are received by the screen data reception control section51v by way of the communication section 53 and displayed on the displaysection 54 by the display control section 51w (step E7).

The processes at the steps E1 to E7 are repeated until after thecustomer depresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 to effectinputting of ending of use (step E8).

The customer depresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 (or an"end" key displayed as a touch sensor on the screen of the displaysection 54 as shown in FIG. 27) to end its shopping, places thecommodities into the scanning cart 100 and moves to the settlement POSterminal 70 (step E9).

At the settlement POS terminal 70, cart number data of the scanning cart100 as an object for settlement of accounts are inputted from thekeyboard section 75 by an operator (step E10). The inputted cart numberdata are inputted from the input control section 71d to the CPU 71, andthe cart number is transmitted to the controller 90 side by way of thecommunication section 73 by the transmission demanding section 71e (stepE11). Then the transmission demanding section 71e demands the controller90 for transmission of a detailed log (detailed data) of the cartnumber.

Meanwhile, on the settlement POS terminal 70 side, each time a scanningcart 100 passes the antenna section of the resonance tag detectionsection 82 and comes to the settlement position, the resonance tags 28in the scanning cart 100 are detected by the resonance tag detectionsection 82 (step E12), and the number of the commodities 50 in thebasket section 102 is acknowledged (step E13).

On the other hand, on the controller 90 side, when the detailed logtransmission demand from the transmission demanding section 71e of thesettlement POS terminal 70 is received, a detailed log corresponding tothe cart number information included in the detailed log transmissiondemand is retrieved and read out from the detailed log file 96 (stepE14) and transmitted to the settlement POS terminal 70 by way of thecommunication section 93 by the detailed log file transmission controlsection 91f (step E15).

Then, on the settlement POS terminal 70 side, when the detailed log fromthe controller 90 side is received by the data reception control section71f by way of the communication section 53 (step E16), the number of thecommodities 50 acknowledged at step E13 by the resonance tag detectionsection 82 and the number of registered commodities stored in thedetailed log received by the data reception control section 71f arecompared with each other by the commodity number comparison section 71g(step E17).

When the acknowledged commodity number and the registered commoditynumber coincide with each other as a result of the comparison by thecommodity number comparison section 71g, that is, when the determinationat step E17 is YES, a receipt is outputted from the printer 77 inaccordance with the detailed log from the controller 90 (step E18), anddelivery of cash is performed, thereby ending the settlement of theaccounts (step E21).

On the contrary when the acknowledged commodity number and theregistered commodity number are different from each other as a result ofthe comparison by the commodity number comparison section 71g, that is,when the determination at step E17 is NO, this is displayed on thedisplay section 74, and the operator notifies to the customer that thereis a miss in registration of a commodity (step E19) and performsregistration of the commodity (step E20), whereafter a receipt isoutputted from the printer 77 (step E18) and delivery of cash isperformed, thereby ending the settlement processing of the accounts(step E21).

In this manner, according to the fifth embodiment of the presentinvention, since the number of data (number of registered commodities)registered for commodity registration on a scanning cart 100 is held inthe detailed log file 96 of the controller 90 and the data number andthe number of acknowledged commodities detected by the resonance tagdetection section 82 of the settlement POS terminal 70 are compared witheach other and then a result of the comparison is notified, an operatorof the settlement POS terminal 70 can confirm presence or absence of anon-registered commodity readily and can notify such presence or absenceto the customer.

Accordingly, similarly as in the fourth embodiment, an unjust act by acustomer such as shoplifting can be prevented without imposing a burdenon an operator of a settlement POS terminal and without taking such acountermeasure as to change the color of the bar code 50a, and anrestraining effect against a temptation to an unjust act can beanticipated. Consequently, occurrence of an unjust act upon introductionof a POS system which involves self scanning can be prevented withcertainty.

It is to be noted that, while the commodity information file 95 in theembodiment described above is provided in the controller 90, thecommodity information file may otherwise be provided in a scanning cart100 or a settlement POS terminal 70. Where the commodity informationfile is provided in a scanning cart 100, a display screen for thedisplay section 54 of the scanning cart 100 is produced on the scanningcart 100 side.

Further, while, in the embodiment described above, commodity codeinformation read from the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 by the scanner57 is transmitted to the controller 90 side and registered or stored asa detailed log into the detailed log file 96, the commodity codeinformation may alternatively be registered or stored into the storagesection 52 of the scanning cart 100 side.

In this instance, upon settlement of accounts at the settlement POSterminal 70, the commodity code information registered in the storagesection 52 of the scanning cart 100 is transmitted to the settlement POSterminal 70 side by way of such an optical adapter as shown in FIG. 18or by way of the controller 90.

g. Sixth Embodiment

Referring now to FIGS. 29 to 33, there is shown a purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus according to a sixth embodimentof the present invention. The purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus of the present embodiment is a modification tothat in the first embodiment described above and similarly employs thescanning cart 100 shown in FIGS. 10 and 11.

While the hardware construction of the control system of the scanningcart 100 in the sixth embodiment is substantially similar to that of thefirst embodiment (refer to FIG. 8), the control system in the presentembodiment additionally includes, as shown in FIG. 30, a communicationsection 83, a printer (receipt issuance section) 84 (FIG. 29), a sensor85, and a commodity information file 86.

The communication section 83 updates, when a prepaid card 87 is insertedinto it and remains information of the prepaid card 87 is read and thenpurchasing and settlement of accounts based on the prepaid card 87 isperformed, the remains information of the prepaid card 87 and thendischarges the prepaid card 87 as hereinafter described in detail withreference to FIG. 29.

The printer 84 performs a printing operation in order to issue a receipton the scanning cart 100. The sensor 85 is provided in the proximity ofan upper opening of the basket section 102 as shown in FIG. 31 foroptically detecting accommodation of a commodity 50 into the basketsection 102 (particularly an unjust act of accommodation withoutscanning). The commodity information file 86 is an ordinary PLU file andstores commodity information such as the commodity numbers, thecommodity names, the prices (unit prices) and so forth corresponding tocommodity code information.

The control system of the scanning cart 100 in the present embodiment isfunctionally constructed in such a manner as shown in FIG. 29.

In particular, referring to FIG. 29, the CPU 51 of the scanning cart 100has functions as the weight determination section 51a similar to that ofthe first embodiment and the commodity information retrieval section(commodity weight retrieval section) 51f and the commodity coderegistration section 51i similar to those of the second embodiment andfurther has functions as a main control section 51A and a notificationsection 51B.

The main control section 51A controls the CPU 51 and receives datainputted thereto from the upper control section by way of thecommunication section 53, key input data (input data from the end key, apurchase continuing key, a receipt issuance key and so forth) from thekeyboard section 55, a detection signal from the sensor 85 and so forthto perform various functions (a display controlling function for thedisplay section 54, a print controlling function for the printer 84, afunction as a power on/off driving section and so forth) as hereinafterdescribed.

The notification section 51B notifies, when data of a prepaid card 87cannot be updated by the communication section 83b of the communicationsection 83, this to the main control section 51A and causes the displaysection 54 to display this as hereinafter described.

The communication section 83 is constituted from a communication section83a, a communication section 83b and a communication section 83c.

The communication section 83a reads remains information of a prepaidcard 87 inserted therein. The communication section 83b subtracts theprice of a commodity 50 detected by the commodity information retrievalsection 51f from remains information read by the communication section83a, and registers a result of the subtraction as remains information ofthe prepaid card 87 to update the prepaid card 87.

The communication section 83c discharges a prepaid card 87 whose datahave been updated by the communication section 83b.

In this instance, in the present embodiment, when the remains read bythe prepaid card inputting processing section 31 are smaller than theprice of a commodity 50 retrieved by the commodity information retrievalsection 51f and consequently the data of the prepaid card 87 cannot beupdated by the communication section 83b, the notification section 51Bis activated in response to a signal from the communication section 83bso that this is notified to the main control section 51A and displayedon the display section 54.

Further, in the present embodiment, when it is displayed on the displaysection 54 based on the notification from the notification section 51Bthat the remains are short, the customer who refers to the displaysection 54 can select whether it depresses the purchase continuing key(not shown) of the keyboard section 55 and inserts a second prepaid card87 into the communication section 83 (communication section 83a) tocontinue its purchasing processing or it depresses the end key (notshown) of the keyboard section 55 to end the purchasing processing(function as selection section).

Further, in the present embodiment, the receipt issuance key (not shown,receipt issuance selection section) is provided on the keyboard section55, and a customer can select whether issuance of a receipt by theprinter (receipt issuance section) 84 is necessary or unnecessarydepending upon whether or not the customer depresses the receiptissuance key upon ending of the purchase.

It is to be noted that the main control section 51A in the presentembodiment has a function as a power on/off driving section whichautomatically turns the power source (56) of the scanning cart 100 on oroff in response to a power on/off instruction when the instruction isreceived from the upper management section (not shown) such as a stationcontroller by way of the communication section (data reception section)53.

Further, also in the present embodiment, the weight determinationsection 51a similar to that of the first embodiment is provided in thescanning cart 100, and when it is determined by the weight determinationsection 51a that the total weight of the commodities 50 in the basketsection 102 measured by the weighing equipment 58 has increased withoutreading a bar code 50a by means of the scanner 57, a sounding operationof the buzzer 59 and an alarm display of the display section 54 areperformed.

Simultaneously with this, the main control section 51A in the presentembodiment has a function of causing a sounding operation of the buzzer59 and an alarm display of the display section 54 to be performed alsowhen a detection signal from the sensor 85 is received to detect anaccommodation operation of a commodity 50 into the basket section 102without reading a bar code 50a by means of the scanner 57.

The scanning cart 100 of the sixth embodiment of the present inventionhaving the construction described above operates in such a manner asillustrated in FIG. 32. Referring to FIG. 32, when a customer does nothave a prepaid card 87 (step F1), it will purchase a prepaid card 87 ata prepaid card issuance machine (not shown) (step F2) and insert theprepaid card 87 into the communication section 83 of the scanning cart100 (step F3). At a point of time when the prepaid card 87 is insertedinto the communication section 83 in this manner, remains information ofthe prepaid card 87 is read by the communication section 83a anddisplayed on the display section 54 (step F4).

Then, the customer reads the bar code 50a applied to a commodity 50 tobe purchased by means of the scanner 57 to register commodity codeinformation of the bar code 50a into the storage section 52 and placesor stores the commodity into the basket section 102 (step F5).

It is to be noted that, in the present embodiment, while a customer usesthe scanning cart 100 in order to purchase commodities, the total weightof the commodities 50 in the basket section 102 of the scanning cart 100is normally monitored by the weighing equipment 58 and the weightdetermination section 51a and unjust accommodation of a commodity 50 ismonitored by the sensor 85, and when it is determined that the totalweight of the commodities 50 in the basket section 102 from the weighingequipment 58 has increased without scanning a bar code 50a or when anaccommodation operation of a commodity 50 into the basket section 102 isdetected by the sensor 85, a warning to the customer (checking of anunjust act) is immediately given there by a sounding operation of thebuzzer 59 and an alarm display of the display section 54 (step F6).

Then, when the customer reads the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 to bepurchased by means of the scanner 57, commodity information such as thecommodity number, the commodity name, the price (unit price) and soforth of the commodity corresponding to the commodity code informationis retrieved from the commodity information file 66 by the commodityinformation retrieval section 51f, and the thus retrieved commodityinformation is displayed on the display section 54 (step F7).

Thereafter, the communication section 83b of the communication section83 registers a result of subtraction of the retrieved price of thecommodity 50 from the remains information of the prepaid card 87 as newremains information of the prepaid card 87 to update the prepaid card 87thereby to effect settlement of the accounts for the commodity 50.

In this instance, when it is determined that the remains information ofthe prepaid card 87 is short, that is, when the determination at step F8is YES, the shortage of the remains is notified by the notificationsection 51B and displayed on the display section 54, and the customerthus refers to the display and selects whether it depresses the purchasecontinuing key of the keyboard section 55 and inserts a second prepaidcard 87 into the communication section 83 to continue the purchasingprocessing (determination of YES at step F9) or it depresses the end keyof the keyboard section 55 to end the purchasing processing(determination of NO at step F9).

When the continuing processing is selected, the remains information ofthe first prepaid card 87 is updated to "0" by the communication section83b and the prepaid card 87 is discharged from the communication section83c (step F10), and then the remains information of the second prepaidcard 87 inserted by the customer is read by the communication section83a and displayed on the display section 54 (step F11).

The processes at the steps F5 to F11 are repeated until the customerdepresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 to effect inputting ofending of use (step F12).

After the customer depresses the end key of the keyboard section 55 toend its purchasing (when the determination at step F9 is NO or when thedetermination at step F12 is YES), it is determined whether or not thereceipt issuance key of the keyboard section 55 is depressed (step F13).When it is depressed, the registered data in the storage section 52 areprinted by the printer 84 to issue a receipt (step F14).

After issuance of a receipt or determination of NO at step F13, theregistered data in the storage section 52 are transmitted to the uppercontrol section by way of the communication section 53 by the maincontrol section 51A (step F15), and then the prepaid card 87 isdischarged by the communication section 83c (step F16). Then, thecustomer receives the receipt from the printer 84 and the prepaid card87 discharged from the communication section 83, thereby completing thesettlement processing of the accounts.

It is to be noted that, in the scanning cart 100 in the presentembodiment, when the business of the store starts, the power isautomatically supplied by the main control section 51A in response to apower-on instruction transmitted from the upper control section, andwhen the business of the store ends, the power supply is automaticallystopped by the main control section 51A. In other words, the poweron/off of the scanning cart 100 can be managed without artificialoperation of a customer, an operator or some other person.

In this manner, according to the sixth embodiment of the presentinvention, since final settlement of accounts, which is conventionallyperformed by a settlement POS terminal, can be performed by self serviceusing a prepaid card 87, not only reduction of the burden on an operatorand reduction of the number of operators can be achieved, but thewaiting time at a settlement POS terminal is eliminated at all and adisagreeable feeling arising from such waiting time is not given to acustomer. Accordingly, remarkable reduction of the shopping time and/orremarkable enhancement in convenience in a self shopping form can berealized.

Further, according to the present embodiment, since, when it isdetermined by the weight determination section 51a or the sensor 85 thata commodity 50 has been accommodated into the basket section 102 withoutscanning the bar code 50a, a sounding operation of the buzzer 59 and analarm display of the display section 54 are immediately performed thereto give a warning to the customer, such an unjust act that a customercarries out a commodity without performing reading of the commodity codewhether it is intentional or accidental can be prevented with certaintyin a POS system wherein all steps up to final settlement of accounts areperformed by self service.

It is to be noted that, while, in the embodiment described above, dataare updated by the communication section 83b each time commodity codeinformation is read by the scanner 57, another construction wherein,after completion of the shopping, a total amount of money forcommodities purchased in the current shopping is calculated inaccordance with registered data registered in the storage section 52 andthe total amount of money is subtracted from the remains information atthe communication section 83b may be employed alternatively.

Further, while, in the embodiment described above, a prepaid card 87 isused, another construction that a credit card or a bank card is used inplace of the prepaid card 87 and the payment is deferred while thesettlement of accounts is performed by self service may be employedalternatively. In this instance, in place of the communication section83 and the notification section 51B shown in FIG. 29, a magnetic cardreader 88 and an automatic clearing processing section 51C are providedas shown in FIG. 33.

In particular, the magnetic card reader 88 includes a magnetic card datareading section 88a for receiving a magnetic card 89 such as a bank cardto read magnetic information of the magnetic card 89, and a carddischarging section 88b for discharging such magnetic card 89 aftercompletion of the processing.

The automatic clearing processing section 51C calculates, aftercompletion of shopping, when a personal identification number inputtedfrom the keyboard section 55 by a customer and personal identificationnumber data included in the magnetic information from the magnetic carddata reading section 88a coincide with each other, a total amount ofmoney of commodities purchased in the current shopping in accordancewith registered data registered in the storage section 52 (prices of thecommodities 50 retrieved by the commodity information retrieval section51f), and transmits automatic clearing processing data to the uppercontrol section by way of the communication section 53 so that theamount of money may be automatically paid later from an accountcorresponding to the magnetic information from the magnetic card datareading section 88a.

With such construction, final settlement of accounts can be performed byself service even where a magnetic card 89 such as a bank card or acredit card is used.

It is to be noted that, where the magnetic card reader 88 and theautomatic clearing processing section 51C described above are providedtogether with the communication section 83 and the notification section51B, the scanning cart 100 on which settlement of accounts can beperformed using any of a prepaid card 87 and a magnetic card 89 such asa bank card or a credit card can be constructed.

Further, while, the commodity information file 86 in the embodimentdescribed above is provided in the control system of the scanning cart100, the commodity information file may alternatively be provided in theupper control section. In this instance, retrieval of price informationis performed by way of communications between the commodity informationretrieval section 51fand the upper control section having the commodityinformation file by way of the communication section 53.

Further, while, in the embodiment described above, commodity codeinformation read from the bar code 50a of a commodity 50 by the scanner57 is registered or stored into the storage section 52 in the scanningcart 100 by the commodity code registration section 51i, anotherconstruction wherein the commodity code information is transmitted tothe upper control section by way of the communication section stored init may be stored into the storage section of the upper control sectionmay alternatively be employed.

Furthermore, while, in the embodiments described above, a purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a selfscanning function of the present invention is a shopping cart, thepresent invention can be applied to a shopping basket or the like in asimilar manner as described above. Also in this instance, similareffects to those of the embodiments described above can be obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the specifically describedembodiment, and variations and modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A POS system, comprising:a plurality of purchasedcommodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having a selfscanning function and each including a commodity code reading sectionfor reading a commodity code applied to a commodity, a commodity coderegistration section for registering the commodity code information readby said commodity code reading section, and an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bysaid commodity code reading section; a commodity information file forstoring price information of commodities corresponding to the commoditycode information as commodity information; and a settlement POS terminalfor retrieving said commodity information file in accordance with thecommodity code information registered in said commodity coderegistration section of any of said purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus to perform final settlement of accounts forpurchased commodities accommodated in said accommodation section of thepurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus; saidcommodity information file storing weight information of individualcommodities corresponding to the commodity code information as commodityinformation; each of said purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus including: a weighing equipment for measuring thetotal weight of commodities accommodated in said accommodation section;and a data transmission section for transmitting, upon settlement ofaccounts at said settlement POS terminal, the total weight of thecommodities in said accommodation section measured by said weighingequipment to said settlement POS terminal; said settlement POS terminalincluding:a data reception section for receiving data from said datatransmission section of any of said purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus; a commodity weight retrieval section forretrieving the weights of the commodities corresponding to the commoditycode information from said commodity information file in accordance withthe commodity code information of all commodities registered by saidcommodity code registration section; a total weight calculation sectionfor calculating the total weight of the weights of the commoditiesretrieved by said commodity weight retrieval section; a weightcomparison section for comparing the total weight calculated by saidtotal weight calculation section and the total weight of the commoditiesin said accommodation section received by said data reception section;and an alarm generation section for generating an alarm when it isdetermined by said weight comparison section that the total weightcalculated by said total weight calculation section and the total weightof the commodities in said accommodation section received by said datareception section are different from each other.
 2. The POS system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein each of said purchased commodityaccommodating and transporting apparatus includes a weight determinationsection for detecting the variation of the total weight of thecommodities in said accommodation section measured by said weighingequipment; and an alarm generation section for generating an alarm whenit is determined by said weight determination section that the totalweight of the commodities in said accommodation section measured by saidweighing equipment has changed without reading a commodity code by saidcommodity code reading section.
 3. A purchased commodity accommodatingand transporting apparatus having a self scanning function, comprising:acommodity code reading section for reading a commodity code applied to acommodity; a commodity code registration section for registering thecommodity code information read by said commodity code reading section;an accommodation section for accommodating therein a commodity whosecommodity code has been read by said commodity code reading section;said commodity code reading section being used to read, upon settlementof accounts, the commodity code of a commodity selected at random fromthe commodities accommodated in said accommodation section; a commodityregistration determination section for determining whether or not thecommodity code information read by said commodity code reading sectionupon settlement of accounts is registered in said commodity coderegistration section; and an error notification section for notifying anerror when it is determined by said commodity registration determinationsection upon settlement of accounts that the commodity code informationread by said commodity code reading section is not registered.
 4. Apurchased commodity accommodating and transporting apparatus having aself scanning function, comprising:a commodity code reading section forreading a commodity code applied to a commodity; a commodity coderegistration section for registering the commodity code information readby said commodity code reading section; an accommodation section foraccommodating therein a commodity whose commodity code has been read bysaid commodity code reading section; and said commodity code readingsection being used to read, upon settlement of accounts, the commoditycode of a commodity selected at random from the commodities accommodatedin said accommodation section; a commodity registration determinationsection for determining whether or not the commodity code informationread by said commodity code reading section upon settlement of accountsis registered in said commodity code registration section; saidcommodity code registration section automatically registering thecommodity code information read by said commodity code reading sectionwhen it is determined upon settlement of accounts by said commodityregistration determination section that the commodity code informationis not registered.
 5. The purchased commodity accommodating andtransporting apparatus having a self scanning function as claimed inclaim 4, further comprising an error notification section for notifyingan error when it is determined upon settlement of accounts by saidcommodity registration determination section that the commodity codeinformation read by said commodity code reading section is notregistered.